Open science in behavioral medicine: Multiple perspectives and provocative questions

Abstract

Understanding and embracing the tenets of “open science” is garnering traction among researchers in behavioral medicine, including SBM’s “Task Force on Open Science”. Open science is seen as a scientific movement aimed at increasing openness, integrity, and reproducibility of scholarly research. It calls upon behavioral medicine researchers to consider complex, and often provocative, questions related to data sharing, registration of research plans and methods, and transparency in publishing. At the same time, many researchers are unsure about how to adopt these practices, and are concerned about how to “do” open science across commonly used behavioral medicine research designs, including longitudinal observational studies and experimental research. This panel, organized by the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, aims to provide both practical knowledge about open science practice as well as useful discussion from multiple perspectives. Panelists will include behavioral medicine principal investigators, a graduate student, a publisher (from Springer Publications), an NIH Representative (National Cancer Institute), journal editors/associate editors, as well as a representative from the Center for Open Science. We will use “Slido”, a smartphone platform that allows the audience to ask and rate questions. The most highly rated questions will be asked of the panel. The moderator will also maintain a list of questions. Examples include: • Will open science change how I do research? • How will open science affect publishing for me? • Is the evidence base strong enough to begin to shift incentive structures toward rewarding and acknowledging open science practices? • How can we guard against public humiliation when studies are not replicated? • How can the time required for pre-registration and other open science practices be built into student research programs? • When communicating our research to lay people and the media, how can we convey the difference between a pre-registered and entirely transparent study, and studies that have not followed these practices? • How can we balance openly sharing resources and with protecting our ideas and intellectual property given that not all researchers engage in open science practices? • What are the special considerations of open science for observational research? Does open science mean I cannot conduct secondary analyses? • What does it mean to register a study beforehand with a journal or study registry? • What is a badge? • How long should I wait before sharing data? How do I even share my data? • How can an open science approach in medicine be cultivated to include behavioral outcomes as an indispensable part of systemic change? • What are some of the “big solutions” related to open science for persistent problems in behavioral medicine that SBM could encourage?