Coding in public: Barriers to reproducibility

Reproducibility is an increasingly popular and important concept for building trust into science and research. However, reproducibility entails barriers that may be especially difficult for researchers from traditionally excluded or underrepresented populations.

This workshop dives into what reproducibility is in the context of social science and data research, as well as exploring what greater reproducibility might achieve in these research areas. Further, this workshop will identify barriers to reproducibility with special attention to why those barriers do not affect all researchers equitably. The workshop concludes with ideas for how researchers can identify how those barriers can be ameliorated for themselves or their colleagues and how collaboration to reduce research barriers improves research outcomes for everyone.

This is a free, full-day, in-person workshop. Participants will engage with discussions, polls, and activities which will require a laptop computer. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Please note: We are hoping to clarify the topics and provide potential strategies for the benefit of the participants. At the same time, we plan to collect comments, anecdotes, ideas and questions from the workshop for future research publications on unequitable barriers to reproducibility. All such data will be anonymised and/or collected in ways that cannot be attributed to individual participants so that participants can feel free to share perspectives or experiences that may not be well recognised by institutions who set reproducibility policies or targets.

Intended audience: Researchers, especially those researchers who are concerned with inequitable barriers to reproducible research for underrepresented or excluded populations.

Prerequisites:

1. A willingness to openly discuss vulnerability in research.
2. A github account (free and easy to make).
3. Beginner to intermediate familiarity with a coding language (i.e. you have the software installed on your machine, can install packages/libraries, can identify/set the working directory, can read in files and save output to files etc.). We will use R and python in the session so you will get the most out of the workshop if you can use one or both of these.
4. Watch the workshop recording: Reproducibility and why it matters for you.
5. Optional! Watch this webinar recording: Reproducibility: Collaborative working.

All materials presented during the workshop will be made available to participants afterwards.

Contact: Please email booking@ukdataservice.ac.uk if you need more information or have concerns relating to your potential participation in this workshop.