Monday 10/24: Increasing Openness and Transparency in Academic Research
3:00-4:00PM, UMC 247
Presenter: John Lurquin

Reproducibility in science is continuing to receive a lot of attention with more and more highly cited findings failing to replicate. Although there are several reasons why a finding might not replicate, most of the focus has been on the lack of openness and transparency in research and how this degrades the validity of reported findings. During this talk, I will describe how certain interventions aimed at increasing transparency in research are becoming standard practice among scientific communities, funding agencies, journals, and hiring/promotion committees. We will then have an open discussion on how these practices might be adopted at the university level. What barriers to transparency exist in your discipline? What types of resources are needed to make the detailed reporting of research easier?

Wednesday 10/26: Open the World of Data with Web APIs
12:00-1:00PM, Norlin Library E113
Presenters: Phil White and Andrew Johnson

All are welcome at this introductory workshop on APIs. An Application Program Interface (API) in simple terms is an interface between applications that allows you to access information or data on the web that might otherwise be difficult or time consuming to collect. For example, a web API can be used to access data.gov, quickly download data from Twitter, or geolocate address information. In this workshop, we will explain how web APIs work and how to use them to access data. We will also demonstrate easy to use tools to get started with APIs. No programming experience necessary.

Thursday 10/27: Implementing Open Research Practices with the Open Science Framework
9:30-10:30AM, UMC 247
Presenters: Andrew Johnson and Laura Michaelson

The Open Science Framework (OSF) is a free and open source tool that allows you to manage all the components of your research project (files, data, protocols, references, etc.) from one simple web interface. Most importantly, it integrates easily with the tools you already use in your everyday workflows (Google Drive, Dropbox, GitHub, Zotero, etc.). This workshop will explore the many features of the OSF, including its project management and collaboration capabilities, with an eye toward implementing open and transparent research practices. Learn how to leverage the OSF to enhance your research workflows!