Project description
Instilling reproducibility in scientific research
Reproducibility is key to scientific progress and research integrity, yet relatively few published studies are or can be reproduced. It seems the pressure to publish in quantity often outshines objectives for quality and transparency. Even proposed interventions to promote reproducibility have themselves been irreproducible. This has raised ethical debate about whether huge sums of funding for research and innovation are being invested wisely. The EU-funded OSIRIS project aims to provide evidence-based solutions to support reproducibility in the scientific process. A team of open science experts and stakeholders will investigate inherent drivers, devise and test new solutions, assess existing solutions and identify incentives that persuade researchers, publishers and funders to instil reproducibility in scientific research.
Objective
Embedding reproducibility in the strategy and design of research should be regarded as a key precondition to research quality. Unfortunately, only a fraction of published studies can be reproduced due to e.g science’s need to be continuously innovative, pressure to publish, a lack of transparent reporting, and career assessments based on quantity rather than quality.
While over the past decade many interventions to improve reproducibility have been introduced, targeted at funders, publishers, or individual researchers, only few of them have been empirically tested. This has resulted in a waste of time, effort, and resources invested in ineffective or even harmful interventions. We need a paradigm and culture shift to reform the R&I system both from the top down and the bottom up to regain overall trust in science.
Open Science to Increase Reproducibility In Science (OSIRIS) aims to facilitate this shift by systematically gathering knowledge on the underlying drivers, testing effective evidence-based solutions, identifying incentives for reproducibility by stakeholders, and embedding reproducibility in research design. We set out to develop and test new solutions, while also testing existing solutions in order to provide guidance on what does and does not work.
These aims will be realised by a unique, interdisciplinary team of scientists with hands-on expertise in Open Science (OS), reproducibility, implementation, and data sharing, along with a range of committed stakeholders, including early career researchers, publishers and funders, that are closely involved in the project through dedicated co-creation activities and as part of our advisory board. By the end of the project, OSIRIS will deliver and disseminate guidance about evidence based interventions that will improve the reproducibility of science.
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
3584 CX Utrecht
Netherlands