Organisers: University of Sheffield (Sheffield Methods Institute, Open Research Working Group and University Library) and Project TIER.

Reproducibility has gained significant attention in research, and many disciplines have now adopted policies recognizing the value of open scholarship. However, it has not yet assumed a central place in the teaching of research methods. We would like to invite academics to discuss the benefits of teaching reproducible research and open science at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

This three day event consists of a one-day symposium with conference style presentations, a workshop on teaching transparent methods of empirical research, and individual or small group in-person consultations with Project TIER Directors.

The event is free to attend upon registration, details for each day are outlined below along with how to book. 

If you have any questions regarding the conference please contact smi@sheffield.ac.uk

 

Day 1 - Symposium: Perspectives on teaching reproducibility

Date: 20 June 2023, 10am

Location: The Wave, lecture theatre 4

Register to attend here.

Registration will remain open until the 16th June - should wish to register to attend after this date, please contact the the conference administration team at smi@sheffield.ac.uk

The Open Scholarship movement has developed in response to the replication crisis in many disciplines and has led to a change in research standards towards more reproducible and transparent conduct. These developments have in turn led to changes in teaching practice in some more ‘data-driven’ disciplines, including psychology, statistics, data science and economics. Some excellent examples are documented in the November 2022 issue of Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, where a number of instructors reflect on "Teaching reproducibility and responsible workflow" and how to embed reproducible workflows, data management and transparent reporting in courses and programmes. 

This symposium will focus on taught programmes (both undergraduate and postgraduate), which has not gained as much attention in the debate so far as research programmes. We would like to continue the discussion, exploring the importance of teaching principles of open science and doing reproducible research in taught programmes, and the ways in which this might be achieved. 

Symposium draft programme:

Time	Session	Session details
10:00-10:30	Welcome	Welcome to Sheffield and introduction Jenni Adams, Open Research Manager, The University Library, University of Sheffield Aneta Piekut, Sheffield Methods Institute, University of Sheffield Jim Uttley, Co-Lead of Open Research Working Group, University of Sheffield
10:30-11:45	Session 1	Approaches to teaching reproducible research Opportunities and challenges for teaching reproducibility in the context of UK Higher Education in the Social Sciences – insights from a consultation with teaching staff Jennifer Buckley, University of Manchester, UK Data Service Building Foundations: Pythonic (Geo)Data Science from the Ground Up Jon Reades, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London The good, the bad and the ugly: Teaching first year psychology undergraduates about research integrity and open science Marina Bazhydai, Emma Mills, Richard Philpot, Mike Vernon, Dermot Lynott, Lancaster University
12:00-1:00 pm	Keynote 1	The New (Aspirational) Normal: Saturating Quantitative Methods Instruction with Reproducibility Norm Medeiros, Project TIER Director, Associate Librarian of the College, Haverford College Richard Ball, Project TIER Director, Professor of Economics, Haverford College
1:30-2:45 pm	Session 2	Pedagogical tools for teaching reproducible research What can an open science educator do on teaching and building digital competences in reproducibility? Our lessons learned implementing the Research Data and Software management training Carlos Utrilla Guerrero, Paula Martinez Lavanchy, TU Delft Library Teaching reproducibility to social scientists Julia Kasmire, UK Data Service, University of Manchester Reproducible geographical information systems and science Andrew MacLachlan, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London
3:00-4:00 pm	Keynote 2	Teaching Reproducibility: reflections on redeveloping a curriculum for teaching reproducible methods Helena Paterson, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Glasgow
4:10-5:00 pm	Panel	Challenges and ways forward for teaching reproducibility Aneta Piekut, Sheffield Methods Institute, University of Sheffield (moderator) Lisa DeBruine, Centre for Methods & Metascience, University of Glasgow Alice Pyne, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield Neil Shephard, Computer Science, University of Sheffield Jim Uttley, School of Architecture, University of Sheffield

 

Day 2 - TIER/UKRN Faculty Development Workshop: Teaching Transparent Methods of Empirical Research

Date: 21 June 2023,

The workshop will run from 9:00am - 4:30pm.
Following a one-hour break after the workshop, the TIER presenters invite participants to reconvene at 5:30pm to have dinner together at a nearby restaurant.

Location: The Wave, classroom 5

Instructors: 

• Richard Ball, Project TIER Director, Professor of Economics, Haverford College
• Norm Medeiros, Project TIER Director, Associate Librarian of the College, Haverford College 

Participation

Eligibility to attend the Day 2 workshop is limited to individuals affiliated with institutions in the UK Reproducibility Network's Open Research Programme.

This event has a limited number of places but is the first in a series of similar events.

For fullest consideration, please apply by May 15.  If space remains, we will continue accepting applications until 10 June.

To apply, or for more information, please email Adam Partridge at a.partridge@sheffield.ac.uk

Overview

This workshop is designed for academic colleagues who are interested in integrating principles of transparency and reproducibility into quantitative methods courses and research training.  It will also be of interest to digital librarians, archivists and data professionals who promote and support reproducible research. 

The workshops introduce participants to methods for conducting and documenting empirical research that ensure the reproducibility of all computational results, and then present a range of pedagogical strategies and curricular resources for teaching these methods to students in a variety of educational settings.

PLEASE NOTE: The methods presented in the workshop will involve writing scripts with code that executes all the steps of data processing and analysis involved in a project, as opposed to typing commands interactively or using a menu-driven GUI. Experience writing scripts is not a prerequisite for the workshop; we will build the necessary tools from scratch during the workshop. But participants should understand that introducing students to the reproducible methods that the workshop focuses on will necessarily involve introducing them to working with scripts.

Subject to the condition that it is possible to write executable scripts, the methods from the workshop can be applied by users of any (scriptable) program— including Matlab, R, SAS, SPSS, Stata, and many others. Although the syntax in which code is written will vary depending on software type, the structure and principles that ensure a project is reproducible are software-neutral.

Commitment to inclusion and diversity

As expressed in our Statement on Diversity and Inclusion, Project TIER is committed to serving members of underrepresented minorities, women, and low-income and first-generation students.

We seek to collaborate with colleagues whose talents and perspectives reflect diverse backgrounds and life experiences, and value their distinct perspectives.  Individuals belonging to underrepresented groups, and/or whose teaching and advising will reach large numbers of under-served students, are especially encouraged to apply.

Content of the workshop

The focus of the workshop is practical: the objective is to help instructors develop plans for teaching reproducible research practices that will be feasible and effective in their particular contexts, and prepare them to implement the methods presented at the workshop in their classes and research supervision.

The program of the workshop will include:

· Workflows for reproducible research.  The foundation of the methods presented at the workshop is writing editable scripts (do-files, syntax files, markdown, etc.) that execute all the steps of data processing and analysis for a project.  The workshop will highlight key principles for using scripts to ensure reproducibility.  Examples will be used to illustrate how these principles are implemented in two kinds of workflow:  copy-and-paste (using any scriptable statistical software package) and dynamic documents (using R and R Markdown).

· Teaching strategies.  We will then discuss strategies for teaching students to adopt these reproducible workflows for a wide variety of projects:  from simple homework problems in introductory classes, to more complex lab projects in advanced courses, all the way to theses, dissertations, and original research papers.

· File-sharing platforms. The workshop will demonstrate how the use of a web-based file-sharing platform can facilitate collaboration among students working on projects together, and radically transform the nature of communication between instructors and students.  Examples using the Open Science Framework (OSF) will be presented, but many other suitable platforms are available (Dropbox, Google Drive, GitHub, etc.), and instructors should feel free to use whatever platform they prefer.

· Pedagogical benefits. Some discussion will also be devoted to the pedagogical benefits of teaching reproducible research methods. Learning to adopt reproducible methods enhances students' understanding of their work with statistical data, and provides critical job skills. Practising these methods also reinforces fundamental principles of inquiry, argument, and integrity that are essential elements in the education of all students, regardless of their later career paths.

Day 3 - Consultations with Project TIER Directors

Date: 22 June 2023, 10:30am

Location: The Wave, Classroom 11

Richard and Norm will be available to hold individual and small-group meetings with instructors interested in introducing reproducible methods into their classes; librarians and archivists who would like to support reproducibility efforts throughout the research lifecycle; graduate students and their advisors who would like to  incorporate reproducible methods into their research and research advising; and other academic staff who would like to discuss benefits of adopting reproducible workflows.

Too book a meeting, secure a spot via this calendar.