15 May Journal Badges Encourage Data Sharing Among Researchers
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mallory Kidwell
Mallory Kidwell, B.A.
Project Coordinator at the Center for Open Science
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Open and transparent sharing of research data and materials is a core value of science that facilitates critique, replication, and extension within the scientific community. However, current norms provide few incentives for researchers to share such evidence, resulting in only a small portion of articles with accessible research data and materials.
Efforts to improve rates of data sharing are occurring across research disciplines. In January 2014, the journal Psychological Science adopted an intervention to encourage data and materials sharing — badges to acknowledge open practices, developed and freely distributed by the Center for Open Science. The badges, visual icons placed on publications, certify when the authors of a research publication have followed open practices to make their data or research materials publicly accessible.
In the two years prior to adopting badges, we found that only about 3% of publications at Psychological Science reported that the underlying data was publicly accessible. After 2014, the rate of publications reporting data sharing increased dramatically, reaching 39% in the first half of 2015 — the last time period included in the study. Materials sharing also increased, but to a weaker degree and with greater variability.
We also found that, with badges, authors were more likely to follow through in making the data accessible and sharing data that was correct, usable, and complete for other researchers to reuse or reanalyze. A comparison group of journals in psychology showed no change in data sharing rates over the same time period, and among the authors that did report sharing data in the other journals, the data was less likely to actually be available, correct, usable, or complete.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: In the present system, researchers value data and materials sharing but get no credit for doing so — it’s just more work and little reward.
Badges are a simple and highly effective intervention to increase data sharing. Moreover, the cost and risk for journals to implement badges is minimal relative to their ability to promote transparent practices. The adoption of badges across a range of journals could have a large effect on the field, and may accelerate a cultural shift toward transparency and sharing of research data and materials.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: A broader adoption of badges across disciplines will enable researchers to investigate their effectiveness further and accelerate the refinement of their criteria and administration process.
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Response: Any journals or organizations interested in adopting or endorsing the badges can do so by sending a message to [email protected].
MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.
Citation: Kidwell, M.C., Lazarevic, L.B., Baranski, E., Hardwicke, T.E., Piechowski, S., Falkenberg, L-S., Kennett, C., Slowik, A., Sonnleitner, C., Hess-Holden, C., Errington, T.M., Fiedler, S., Nosek, B.A. (2016). Badges to acknowledge open practices: A simple, low cost, effective method for increasing transparency. PLoS Biology, 14(5), e1002456. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002456
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Last Updated on May 15, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD