Open Science

Open Science is a movement to make scientific research transparent and accessible to everyone. This not only gives the best opportunity for research to be critically examined, to ensure reproducibility, but it also makes it easier for scientists to share their work with others, and build on the work that has been done before. You will be learning more about the principles and practices of Open Science in Lab 3. For now, know that as you work on your research project, you will follow the stages of a typical registered report and implement Open Science practices including:

• Throughout the experiment, using appropriate version control on electronic documents and proper file and data management practices (see below).
• Performing a literature review on your research topic and documenting a list of consulted studies, how they were found, and the strengths, limitations, and weaknesses of each.
• Submitting a written proposal with an established a priori hypothesis, experimental design, and plan for presenting and analyzing your data. This will be marked before the experiment implementation phase and TA feedback incorporated into the project as needed. Creating a detailed, thorough plan for your research often takes as much time as running the experiment and collecting and analyzing your data. The more you plan, including anticipating potential problems, the easier the implementation!
• Implementing the study according to your plan, and noting any deviations from that plan (Note: deviations often happen, and that's OK! The key is to document them). These reflections will be submitted for marks.
• Submitting and presenting a poster that details your experiences implementing the research plan (including any changes recorded, justification for changes, analysis of the data, and your interpretation and conclusion).
• Conducting a peer review of other students' poster presentations using the poster presentation rubric as a guideline.