Through many replication attempts in recent years, it has been shown that many research results cannot be replicated, i.e., the same effects could not be found again despite the same experimental design. This concerns foremost research in psychology, medicine, and life sciences. The reasons for this are manifold. Among them are the incorrect use and reporting of statistical methods, selective publication of desired results due to faulty incentive and publication structures, or the lack of publication of original data, which complicates control functions of the scientific system. To address these problems, several solutions have been proposed that can be implemented at different levels of the scientific process. These include, for example, publishing all original data, study materials, and analysis code, reinforcing the incorporation of good scientific practices into teaching, and changing incentive structures (such as through awards or recognition of these practices in hiring). Together these are subsumed as “Open Science”.
To bring about these changes, organizations have been formed at universities around the world to support institutions and their staff in making science more reproducible and sustainable. In Germany, this is being done through the Network of Open Science Initiatives (NOSI), of which the Open Science Initiative Lübeck is now a member.
As part of this new Open Science mindset, many researchers have opted to increase research quality and reliability by sharing their data, materials, and code via the Open Science Framework.
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