Transparency and Open Science Practices in Research on Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

The replication crisis has become a major focus throughout the sciences, spurring discussions among researchers about the limits of the mainstream work produced in their fields. In response, there have been strong efforts toward developing solutions to address these limits, efforts that are broadly referred to as the open science movement. This chapter highlights three core issues related to open science that are particularly important for producing and consuming research on emerging adulthood: (1) the importance of understanding and reducing research degrees of freedom across the research cycle; (2) the underappreciated role of statistical power in quantitative studies, particularly when testing interaction effects; and (3) some of the unique challenges facing emerging adulthood researchers in adopting open science practices. Across the discussion, concrete steps are provided that researchers can take to promote the open science principles of transparency, credibility, reproducibility, and accessibility.