Scientific Integrity Symposium 2024: Highlights

Scientific integrity is essential to the self-correcting nature of science. But how can we ensure the quality and integrity of scientific research, and what frameworks can we create to foster it?

At a time when AI introduces new challenges to the traditional scientific publishing system and the integrity of many established researchers is under scrutiny, the importance of maintaining scientific integrity is more crucial than ever. On September 23, the Open Science Community Amsterdam together with the Student Initiative for Open Science hosted the Scientific Integrity Symposium to highlight interdisciplinary perspectives on the topic, discuss prerequisites for fostering a culture of research integrity, and addressed the growing challenges of scientific fraud.

UvA Open Science coordinator Frans Oort opened the event, followed by talks from international experts on fraud detection, Elisabeth Bik and Ben Mol, as well as national experts on research integrity Mariëtte van den Hoven and Gerben ter Riet. This event was part of a nationwide series held during the National Open Science week and is supported by Open Science NL

Slides

Speaker slides can be found on our OSCA repository: https://osf.io/zpsrh/

Highlights

We believe that the symposium was a great success and it left us with some sobering insights. For instance, Ben Mol estimates that around 30% of randomized controlled trials in women’s health are fabricated or untrustworthy; Elisabeth Bik has flagged over 3,000 papers in biomedical research as potentially fraudulent, of which more than 1,200 have been retracted; Gerben ter Riet warned about conflicts of interest and the spread of false narratives when industries publish scientific research. These numbers underscore the need for more systematic control in scientific publishing. On a more optimistic note, the event also highlighted the importance of fostering a work environment that supports research integrity and encouraged researchers to speak up, a topic discussed by Mariëtte van den Hoven. Relevant training on this topic is offered, for instance, by the Dutch Research Integrity Network (NRIN).

About the speakers

Frans Oort is full professor of Methods and Statistics, director of the Research Institute of Child Development and Education, and vice-dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. Since 2019 he is the coordinator of Open Science at the University of Amsterdam. 

Elisabeth Bik is a scientific integrity consultant based in San Francisco and a member of the eLife Ethics committee. She is renowned for her expertise in image forensics for scientific papers and has identified over 4,000 potential cases of scientific misconduct, including more than 400 linked to the “tadpole paper mill”.

Ben Mol has developed methods to detect fraud in scientific publications over the past 12 years, scrutinized articles for signs of manipulated data, and raised awareness about the impact of fabricated articles on medical guidelines. His discoveries as a whistleblower are frequently highlighted on the platform Retraction Watch.

Gerben ter Riet is a clinical epidemiologist at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) and specializes in the intersection of research integrity and quantitative research methodologies. He consults at the HvA Open Science Support Desk, and co-authored the 2015 ZonMw research program aimed at promoting responsible research practices.

Mariëtte van den Hoven chairs the executive board of the Netherlands Research Integrity Network.  As an expert in professional ethics and research integrity, she leads a European consortium dedicated to developing training programs that promote responsible research practices and empower researchers to speak out on ethical issues within their fields.

Community Building for Citizen Science

Join our interactive workshop about community management and dialogue.

Getting started with Citizen Science is no mean feat, but it can be very rewarding if done correctly! The VU University library supports citizen science trough their Science in the Cloud project. This workshop is meant for researchers and other staff thinking of adding a Citizen Science component to their research. It builds from experience and literature. This session will get you started with a communication plan to build and sustain a thriving community for your project.

This event is part of a nationwide series held during the National Open Science week and is supported by Open Science NL

Event Details

Registration: https://vu-nl.libcal.com/event/4252183

Date: 26 September 2024, 12:00 – 14:00

Location: VU Library, Main building, de Boelelaan 1105

This event is free to attend, but registration is required because we have a limited number of spots.

OSC-NL National Open Science Week from 23 to 27 September 2024

To celebrate and recognize the crucial role of Open Science in the advancement of science, the Network of Open Science Communities in the Netherlands (OSC-NL) organises its first OSC-NL National Open Science Week from 23 to 27 September 2024.

Although Open Science contributes to more transparent and inclusive research, its practical implementation is often challenging.

This Open Science Week aims to address these challenges by raising awareness of the various support services and structures that exist, such as local and thematic Digital Competency Centers, Open Science Programmes, Open Science Communities (OSCs) etc. Designed to facilitate the application of Open Science principles, these resources provide researchers and research supporters with the tools and funding necessary to adopt more open and collaborative research practices.  Read more

Faces of Open Science Workshop

Register now for a thought-provoking session that highlights the personal and collective commitments shaping the future of research. 

Join the “Faces of Open Science Workshop” on Friday 27 September for an engaging and creative session where we will delve into the diverse roles and motivations that drive the Open Science movement. In this workshop, Susanna Bloem and Marc van Mil from Utrecht University, invite participants to explore how they relate to the principles of openness, transparency, and collaboration in their research and academic practices. Whether you’re deeply involved in Open Science or just starting to explore it, this workshop will offer valuable insights and inspiration.

This event is part of a nationwide series held during the National Open Science week and is supported by Open Science NL

Event Details

Registration: https://tinyurl.com/faces-of-os

Date: 27 September 2024, 11:00 – 14:00

Location: Sweelinck Room, Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Oude Turfmarkt 145-147

This event is free to attend, but registration is required because we have a limited number of spots.

RECAP: HvA Open Science Coffee

The Open Science Coffee at the HvA on May 21 at the AUAS, the last of this academic year, focused on the controversial term ‘impact’, which is surrounded by persistent misunderstandings. The speaker, Kathrin Metselaar – Business Developer at Innovation Exchange Amsterdam – came to open our eyes to the blind spots in the current perspective on the types of impact that practice-oriented research at the AUAS can have.
 
In summary, the value of our practice-oriented research hardly lies in the individual delivery of a research product that can subsequently be monetized. It often has an effect on society before the project has even started and in places where we are not used to look. Our appeal is therefore to all researchers who can use our support in making their unconscious achievements visible.
 
After the presentation we played our open science card games and had lunch together. These Open Science Coffees on location are a great success, so we will continue with this next academic year. If you have ideas for topics or speakers, please send an email to Raúl Inzaurralde, Community Manager Open Science & Digital Skills: r.inzaurralde@hva.nl.

Second Annual OSCAWARDS: Science Belongs To Everyone

On Monday 10 June 2024, the Open Science Community Amsterdam (OSCA) presented the second annual OSCAWARDS to 10 Amsterdam teams, including support staff, researchers, educators, and students. Science belongs to everyone, but how do we ensure that everyone indeed has access to science? In Amsterdam, the VU, UvA, HvA, and SIOS (the Student Initiative for Open Science) work together within the Open Science Community Amsterdam (OSCA) to promote ‘open science’: science that is accessible and transparent. Open science started with researchers in the STEM fields sharing data and software. Today, open science is about openness at all stages of research: social dialogue about research questions, transparency about hypotheses, shared software and materials, open data, and communication about the conclusions we draw from that data. That is why the OSCA awarded prizes in different categories:

Open Access / Open Data / Open Materials / Open Software
Transparency / Metascience / Preregistration / Reproducibility
Citizen Science / Societal Impact / Community Engagement
Open Educational Resources / Open Educational Practices

The evening started with presentations on engagement within and beyond academia. We invited Imme Ruarus from de Waag’s to talk about the citizens network for measuring the air quality in North Holland. Laura Luzia introduced the Pint of Science, a festival aimed to deliver talks on research in an accessible format to the public and Mariana Lanari talked about Archival Consciousness, an investigation into the world of physical and digital archives. As organizers, we felt very inspired to see the impact and diversity open science projects can have and we are looking forward to awarding more open science projects the coming years.

Call for OSCAWARDS 2024

The OSCAWARDS celebrate the many ways of contributing to open science and transparent research culture. Researchers, educators, support staff and students are invited to submit case studies describing their completed or ongoing projects, contributions by teams are particularly encouraged. Submission deadline: May 16.

The Open Science Community Amsterdam (OSCA) is part of OSC-NL a network of coordinators of Dutch open science communities, aiming to promote collaborations between communities and open science principles and methodologies. Through the OSCAWARDS, open science in Amsterdam is highlighted. All groups and projects with open science related aspects or challenges can be nominated for the awards. The Open Science Community Amsterdam (OSCA) receives financial support from VU Amsterdam, HvA and UvA.

Submission

Submit your project here: https://tinyurl.com/OSCAWARDS2024

Target group

All support staff, researchers, educators, and students based in Amsterdam are welcome to submit Open Science projects or nominate someone else’s for the OSCAwards 2024.

What can be applied for

Eight prizes of €400,- in four different categories of Open Science for support staff, researchers, and educators, and two prizes of €400,- for student submissions.

Categories:

  1. Open Access / Open Data / Open Materials / Open Software
  2. Transparency / Metascience / Preregistration / Reproducibility
  3. Citizen Science / Societal Impact / Community Engagement
  4. Open Educational Resources / Open Educational Practices

Aim

Celebrate the many ways of contributing to open science and transparent research culture.

Eligibility / evaluation criteria

The jury will judge entries based on their adherence to the following criteria*:

  • The project’s fit within the specified category
  • The quality of the application
  • The alignment of the project with open science values
  • The project’s potential and implementation of knowledge exchange

See this pdf of the evaluation form: https://osf.io/4w7xb

Important dates

  • Submission deadline: May 16, 16:00 CET
  • Award ceremony: June 10, SPUI25 Amsterdam

Contact

Openscience.amsterdam@gmail.com

* Please note, it is required to include references to the work you describe in your project, for instance, the URL to the open educational materials, free software package, the preregistration/other scientific output etc. Even if you submit work in progres, there should be links to open materials for verification

INOSC at the annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science (APS)

We were happy to have been given the opportunity to represent the international network of open science communities at the 2023 annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) in Washington D.C. Alexandra Sarafoglou (coordinator of OSCA) was invited to speak about the importance of grassroot communities in the symposium titled “Open Science 2.0: Moving Beyond Statistical Reforms to Improve Psychological Science”.

Alexandra highlighted the main challenge in adopting open science practices: engaging the academic community across disciplines and beyond the open science bubble. Researchers are at the center of the transition to open science, and it is the academic community that ultimately sets the norms and standards in the field. Open science communities can address these challenges by promoting open science practices among researchers, making them visible and accessible. They also advocate for the research community’s needs and can articulate them to policy makers at both local and national levels, as seen in the Netherlands. Drawing from these experiences, Alexandra advocated the establishment of open science communities in more institutions.

The symposium, chaired and organized by Eiko Fried, and emphasized not only the significance of grassroot initiatives but also highlighted the need to prioritizing diversity (speaker: Sakshi Ghai), education (speaker: Flavio Azevedo), and theory formation (speaker: Donald Robinaugh) when moving toward cumulative, global, and truly open psychological science. The symposium slides are openly available and can be accessed on: https://osf.io/u7wba/


We are truly inspired by the amazing work from our fellow speakers and the great open science initiatives that were represented at the conference. In particular, we would like to shout out the great work done by team members of the FORRT project which aims to advance open science through pedagogical reform and meta-scientific research (Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training; https://forrt.org) and by team members of the CREP project which provides training, support, and professional growth opportunities for students and instructors completing replication projects (Collaborative Education and Replication Project; https://www.crep-psych.org).

OSC-NL at the Dutch EOSC Tripartite Event

Eduarda Centeno (OSC Amsterdam), representing OSC-NL, attended the first national Tripartite event in the Netherlands on April 11th, which focused on the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and how to connect stakeholders to the infrastructure being created in the context of Open Science in Europe. The event was hosted by SURF, OCW, and EZK ministries and brought together around 50 attendees, including representatives from researchers, Open Science programs, Digital Competence Centers, funding organizations, and delegates from national governments, the European Commission, the EOSC steering board, and the EOSC association.

During the first panel, Eduarda discussed the importance of Local and Thematic Digital Competence Centers and their challenges in the Dutch landscape. Eduarda shared her experience as a researcher trying to implement Open Science practices at the VUmc in Amsterdam and the challenges she faced in finding relevant resources and training. She highlighted the gap between top-down policies, infrastructure/training, and day-to-day implementation by researchers, who often do not understand how to change their practices according to the new directives nor have the time to do so. She explained how her strategy was to become a member of the OSCA board and try to be closer to the Open Science community around her. The OSCA gave her access to relevant information, training, and networking opportunities throughout the Netherlands, which helped her immensely to streamline her search towards adequate solutions.

Eduarda stressed the need for policymakers to recognize OSCs as critical allies in bridging the gap between top-down decisions and the bottom-up reality of researchers and educators. She argued that it is crucial to fund these communities sustainably rather than relying on volunteer efforts from community board managers. By investing in OSCs, policymakers could establish a mutually beneficial relationship with stakeholders, ultimately improving the effectiveness of Open Science infrastructure. Eduarda emphasized the potential of OSCs to help bridge the gap between higher-up projects and policies with the reality of researchers and educators, ultimately merging the needs of the different stakeholders.

In conclusion, on behalf of the OSC-NL, Eduarda’s point of view was that Open Science infrastructure and training are crucial for modern scientific research. However, it must reach the target audience to realize its potential. OSCs are vital in connecting researchers and educators to the infrastructure tailored to their needs. Funding these communities would be a great step towards merging the needs of the different stakeholders, and policymakers must engage with OSCs to ensure policies are effectively communicated and implemented.

More on the event here: National Tripartite Event Netherlands | EOSC Association

Looking back: OSCAwards

Image: Iris van der Werff

On January 26th, the first OSCAwards took place at SPUI25. We awarded eight Open Science projects and initiatives from our four institutions for their efforts. We were particularly impressed by the interdisciplinarity and the high quality of the submissions. The evening program included short pitches of the winning projects. Besides that, we speakers Lisa Yu from the UvA Data Science Center, Maaike de Jong from the Netherlands eScience center, and Eva Baaren and Thijs van Schijndel, editors of openresearch.amsteram, to discuss the integration and role of Open Science in in research collaborations, advanced research software, and the field of data science. 

An overview of all the submitted projects is available here: https://osf.io/npmdj
Or watch the full event of the OSCAwards online: https://spui25.nl/programma/science-for-all-the-2023-oscawards

Maaike de Jong and Lisa Yu at the OSCAwards Ceremony in SPUI25
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