LibGuides: ACRL/EBSS Psychology Committee: Open Research

Overview

The goals of open research are transparency, efficiency, and collaboration. The potential outcomes of open research are greater reproducibility, cross-lab communication, and a faster progression of science. Individuals who engage in open research provide some level of open (free) access to their methods, analyses, and results. Some may also choose to use open software in their methods and analyses. Here are some general resources about open research:

Tools That Open Research Workflows

A selection of some of the more common open research tools that every psychology librarian should be familiar with.

Open Discovery

Google Scholar
Google’s index for scholarly literature, although not all results will be academic, peer reviewed articles.
Unpaywall
Open Access content from over 50,000 publishers and repositories
RIO: Research Ideas and Outcomes
Journal which publishes research ideas and outputs such as grant applications, workflows, data management plans, wikipedia articles, and conference abstracts.

Open Annotation

Hypothes.is
A browser extension for collaborative web annotation.

Open Notebooks

Open Lab Notebooks
Repository for lab notebooks.
How to Pick an Electronic Lab Notebook
Shapira & Harding (2019). Open Laboratory Notebooks
Abstract Excerpt: The fundamental goal of the growing open science movement is to increase the efficiency of the global scientific community and accelerate progress and discoveries for the common good. Central to this principle is the rapid disclosure of research outputs in open-access peer-reviewed journals and on pre-print servers. The next bold step in this direction is open laboratory notebooks, where research scientists share their research — including detailed protocols, negative and positive results — online and in near-real-time to synergize with their peers. Here, we highlight the benefits of open lab notebooks to science, society and scientists, and discuss the challenges that this nascent movement is facing. We also present the implementation and progress of our own initiative at openlabnotebooks.org, with more than 20 active contributors after one year of operation.

Open Computational Notebooks

Jupyter Lab & Notebook
The lab is a web-based interactive development environment for Jupyter notebooks, code, and data. The notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and narrative text.
Code Ocean
A platform for computational reproducibility that allows users to create, collaborate on, and run code using any open source language as well as MATLAB and Stata. Researchers can run and reproduce work from any web browser without needing to install any hardware or software.

Open Protocols

Protocols.io
An open-access repository of step-by-step, detailed protocols and methods for researchers across multiple disciplines. Users can create private or public repositories to create, manage, and share any step-by-step process.

Open Registration

OSFRegistries
An open repository of pre-registrations for experimental science. Pre-registrations do not need to be discipline or subject-specific and can follow a number of templates.
AsPredicted
Platform for creating a time stamped pre-registration by answering nine questions.

Open Data Repositories

Dataverse
Open source research data repository software
Dryad
Open source, community driven platform for data publication and digital preservation.
Zenodo
A general-purpose open-access repository developed under the European OpenAIRE program and operated by CERN.
Figshare
An open repository where users can make all of their research outputs available in a citable, shareable and discoverable.

Open Code and Software

Github
A platform for hosting for software development and version control using Git.
Bitbucket
Git code management that allows teams to plan projects, collaborate on code, test, and deploy.

Open Writing

Google Docs
A free browser-based word processor
Overleaf (LaTeX)
Easy to use, collaborative, LaTeX editor
Authorea
An online collaborative writing tool

Open Publishing: Preprint Servers

BioRxiv
Preprint server for biology
PsyArXiv
Preprint server for psychology
OSF Preprints
An open preprint repository. Preprints do not need to be from a specific subject or discipline.

Open/Alt Peer Review

PubPeer
Online platform for open post-publication peer review.

Open/Alt Assessment of Scholarly Works

Altmetric
Alternative metrics for measuring engagement with scholarly content.
PlumX Metrics
"PlumX Metrics provide insights into the ways people interact with individual pieces of research output (articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and many more) in the online environment. Examples include, when research is mentioned in the news or is tweeted about. Collectively known as PlumX Metrics, these metrics are divided into five categories to help make sense of the huge amounts of data involved and to enable analysis by comparing like with like."

Supporting Open Research Practices

What Librarians Can Do To Support Open Research Practices

Learn about free, open tools for opening the research workflow
Learn about subject-specific repositories for data, code, and research information
Learn about other’s outreach efforts (e.g., FOSTER)
Read subject-specific articles about open research
Promote free tools
Become a Center for Open Science Ambassador
Pursue institutional licenses for various tools, if possible, to give your users the ability to do more open research
Attend conference sessions and virtual webinars on open research topics
Find and collaborate with other open research advocates in the library and in your departments
Present workshops or lunch & learns on open research best practices