Badges to Acknowledge Open Practices: A Simple, Low-Cost, Effective Method for Increasing Transparency

Abstract

Beginning January 2014, Psychological Science gave authors the opportunity to signal open data and materials if they qualified for badges that accompanied published articles. Before badges, less than 3% of Psychological Science articles reported open data. After badges, 23% reported open data, with an accelerating trend; 39% reported open data in the first half of 2015, an increase of more than an order of magnitude from baseline. There was no change over time in the low rates of data sharing among comparison journals. Moreover, reporting openness does not guarantee openness. When badges were earned, reportedly available data were more likely to be actually available, correct, usable, and complete than when badges were not earned. Open materials also increased to a weaker degree, and there was more variability among comparison journals. Badges are simple, effective signals to promote open practices and improve preservation of data and materials by using independent repositories.

Do you speak open science? Resources and tips to learn the language

“…Those who apply for a badge and meet open data or open materials specifications receive the corresponding badge symbol at the top of their paper and provide an explicit statement in the paper including a URL to the data or materials at an open repository. A recent study has shown that these badges are effective incentives to improve the openness, accessibility, and persistence of data and materials that underlie scientific research [22].…”

Our path to better science in less time using open data science tools

“…Our story is only one potential path because there are many ways to upgrade scientific practiceswhether collaborating only with your 'future self ' or as a team-and they depend on the shared commitment of individuals, institutions and publishers 6,16,17 . We do not review the important, ongoing work regarding data management architecture and archiving 8,18 , work flows 11,[19][20][21] , sharing and publishing data [22][23][24][25] and code [25][26][27] , or how to tackle reproducibility and openness in science [28][29][30][31][32] . Instead, we focus on our experience, because it required changing the way we had always worked, which was extraordinarily intimidating.…”

Promoting Open Science to Increase the Trustworthiness of Evidence in Special Education

“…Dozens of journals, including those in the social-behavioral sciences, have adopted badges to acknowledge open data, open materials, and preregistration (Kidwell et al, 2016).…”

“…Offering Open Science Badges has been associated with an increase in data sharing (Kidwell et al, 2016) open science will require a cultural shift in special education research and publication (see Casadevall & Fang, 2012). Incentives in the field must change to reward researchers for opening their research process and sharing their data.…”