About

We are OSIP

OSIP Mission Statement

The basis of any empirical science is trust in the reliability of research results. The Open Science approach offers concrete recommendations for action to improve the reliability of one's own research work and to make this known. These include the following measures, among others:

• Publication of one's own research data and release for use by others,
• Publication of one's own research materials (e.g., instructions and evaluation scripts),
• Pre-registering the design, hypotheses, and evaluation steps of one's own research, including a priori case number estimation to ensure sufficient statistical power,
• Regular replication of findings.

More and more, these Open Science practices are not only encouraged, but even explicitly required, for example, in publishing in journals, obtaining external funding, and by professional societies such as the German Psychological Society (see DGPs and FTPs statement).

For many scientists, however, this trend towards Open Science also has an unsettling effect and raises many questions, such as

• Do I have to pre-register all my studies? Am I then no longer allowed to explore my data for interesting correlations?
• For pre-registration of a study in a new research area, how am I even supposed to know what the data will be like for analysis?
• Do I always have to publish all the data? How can I still do research if my data contain personal elements or are so extensive that they would require much more elaborate analysis?
• Can anyone simply use my elaborately developed paradigms if I have to publish them as well?
• Will using these sometimes elaborate practices put me at a career disadvantage compared to other young scientists?

The question of career planning rightly preoccupies young researchers: the improvement of methodological quality usually goes hand in hand with reduced quantity (lower publication output), which can quickly lead to a direct contradiction with current incentive systems and evaluation criteria in the scientific professional environment.

When we began our first experiments in Open Science, these and many other questions also drove us. Through conversations with colleagues, engagement with the literature, and trial and error, we found initial answers and discovered that using Open Science practices can actually be quite enjoyable.

The Open Science Initiative of the Faculty of Psychology aims to support researchers in implementing Open Science practices and in exchanging ideas with colleagues about the knowledge gains, but also problems, that arise in the process. We see ourselves as joint learners with the goal of improving our work, adding quality and reliability to our own scientific findings, discovering the joy of this new kind of scientific work, and ultimately fulfilling our social mission.

Goals of the Open Science Initiative

• Observing international developments in the field of research transparency and Open Science, as well as communicating these developments within the Faculty of Psychology,
• Organizing workshops and trainings on the topic of Open Science,
• mutual consultation and support in the implementation of Open Science practices, as well as exchange on the advantages and disadvantages of Open Science methods in the context of the standards of good scientific practice and research transparency,
• Development of concrete proposals on criteria for appointments, tenure track evaluation, supervision of PhD students, teaching,
• In the medium term, the development of a common position within the faculty on the respective areas of Open Science, based on shared scientific values.