8.2: Methods & Tools

[Develop] open methods and tools

Other Information:

Open data allow confirmation, extension, critique, and improvement of research already conducted. Open methods have the same effect and also facilitate progress in reuse, adaptation, and extension for new research (Schofield et al., 2009). In particular, open methodology facilitates replication and paradigm-driven research. Published reports of methodologies often lack sufficient detail to conduct a replication (Donoho, Maleki, Rahman, Shahram, & Stodden, 2009; Stodden, 2011). At best, the written report is the authors' understanding of what is critical for the methodology. However, there are many factors that could be important but go unmentioned—for example, the temperature of the room for data collection, the identities of the experimenters, the time of day for data collection, or whether instructions were delivered verbally or in written form. Moreover, in paradigm-driven research, changes to the methodology are ideally done by design, not by accident. The likelihood of replicating and extending a result is stronger if the original materials are reused and adapted rather than reinvented on the basis of the new researchers' understanding of the original researchers' written description... Presently, only the scientific report is cited and valued. Openness with data, methods, and tools makes them citable contributions (Mooney, 2011; Piwowar et al., 2007; http://www.data-pass.org/citations.html). Contributing data or methods that are the basis for multiple investigations provides reputation enhancement for the originator of the resources. Vitas can include citations to the articles, data sets, methods, scripts, and tools that are each independently contributing to knowledge accumulation (Altman & King, 2007). Also, the ready availability of these materials will accelerate productivity by eliminating the need to recreate or reinvent them. Further, reinvention based on another's description of methods is a risk factor for introducing unintended differences between the original and replicated methodology.

Stakeholder(s):

• Authors: Authors cannot identify and report every detail that may be important in a method, but many more parts of the methodology can be shared outside of the report itself. For example, it is easy to create a video of the experimental setting and conduct a simulation of the procedure for posting on the Internet.


• Figshare: Figshare (http://figshare.com/) offers a repository for data and methods or materials for private archiving or public sharing.


• Open Science Framework: Further, the Open Science Framework (http://openscienceframework.org/) is a Web-based project management framework for documenting and archiving research materials, analysis scripts, or data, and it empowers the user to keep the materials private or make them public.

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

Content