Open Science
Open Science @ MMI Basel
Openness is a key principle of science and research, and scientific knowledge should be open by nature. Open Science can be understood as the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes, and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods1.
At MMI Basel, we have set ourselves six Open Science goals:1. Encourage and teach Open Science practices
Researchers and students at HCI Basel are responsible to apply research practices to their best capability and knowledge. We are committed to giving our students the best education possible and teach state-of-the-art Open Science practices to encourage Preregistration, Open Materials, Open Source, Open Data and Open Access. Whenever appropriate, we advocate transparent research processes in our work and in the work of others. While we aim to become fully reproducible at some point in the future, we acknowledge that it will take some effort to get there.
2. Preregister empirical studies
We aim to preregister all empirical studies, whether confirmatory or exploratory in nature. Exploratory findings will always be reported as such.
3. Make data accessible whenever ethically and legally possible
Research funded by the public should be accessible to the public, including all data collected. We are aware that data can include sensitive personal information and handle data with special care to always respect the privacy and choices of the participants in our studies.
4. Publish analysis scripts and materials
Whenever possible, we publish how we conducted analyses and what materials were used in the study. With this information, every step of our research can be reviewed and it encourages replications of our work.
5. Choose Open Access
We preferably publish our work in Open Access venues or with an Open Access license to increase the visibility and impact of our work and make sure that the public always has access to our work. Whenever possible, we publish preprints of our work on public repositories.
6. Encourage and conduct replications
Psychology and HCI need more replications to test the robustness of empirical findings. We support replications of our own work whenever possible and actively conduct replications since they are equally important as original work.