How to Teach Open Science Principles in the Undergraduate Curriculum—The Hagen Cumulative Science Project

Abstract

The Hagen Cumulative Science Project is a large-scale replication project based on students’ thesis work. In the project, we aim to (a) teach students to conduct the entire research process for conducting a replication according to open science standards and (b) contribute to cumulative science by increasing the number of direct replications. We describe the procedural steps of the project from choosing suitable replication studies to guiding students through the process of conducting a replication, and processing results in a meta-analysis. Based on the experience of more than 80 replications, we summarize how such a project can be implemented. We present practical solutions that have been shown to be successful as well as discuss typical obstacles and how they can be solved. We argue that replication projects are beneficial for all groups involved: Students benefit by being guided through a highly structured protocol and making actual contributions to science. Instructors benefit by using time resources effectively for cumulative science and fulfilling teaching obligations in a meaningful way. The scientific community benefits from the resulting greater number of replications and teaching state-of-the-art methodology. We encourage the use of student thesis-based replication projects for thesis work in academic bachelor and master curricula.

Research practices and statistical reporting quality in 250 economic psychology master's theses: a meta-research investigation

“…Once a sufficient number of independent replications have been conducted, a multi-site meta-analysis is performed, and a replication report is submitted as a scientific paper. Second, it is worth mentioning the Hagen Cumulative Science Project [91], a large-scale replication project where students conduct replications as their bachelor's thesis. More than 80 replications have already been conducted.…”

Special Issue: Engaging with Open Science in Learning and Teaching

“…The authors of the study stress the importance of improving data management skills among university researchers to improve data storage and transfer practices according to good scientific practice standards (Wiley & Kerby, 2018). Other studies emphasise the need and importance of teaching students principles of transparent and reproducible research with the idea to raise awareness to open science (Jekel et al, 2020;Toelch & Ostwald, 2018b). This is in accordance of the recent recommendations of the open science policy platform that stresses the importance of teaching FAIR data principles and data management skills to students (Mendez et al, 2020).…”

“…Teaching courses and online resources on open science seem to be currently one of the primary focus of researchers and advocates, who want to build capacity on open science. Lecturers have also began to develop learning scenarios for higher education (Jekel et al, 2020) and teaching students to apply open science principles in classroom projects and research. This trend is not surprising considering that 'education and training' is one of the eight pillars of open science development identified by the European Commission .…”

Conceptual replication study of fifteen JDM effects: Insights from the Polish sample

“…Thus, our research could be considered conceptual replication rather than a direct replication (Hüffmeier et al, 2016). Additionally, replicated studies were selected, pre-registered, and conducted by undergraduate psychology students enrolled in a decision-making course, which seems to be of special importance because of educational benefits and the increasing methodological awareness of students (Jekel et al, 2020). Moreover, such a selection procedure allows a broad range of effects that are regarded as important by young people to be investigated, and not only effects that have gained an audience among experienced researchers.…”

“…The course syllabus was inspired by the work by Gilad Feldman https://mgto.org/teaching-courses/ and the Hagen Cumulative Science Project(Jekel et al, 2020).…”