Transparent and Reproducible Research

online course

Learn how to conduct transparent and reproducible research and when to trust and distrust published research.

Need to know

None required.

Motivation to conduct transparent and reproducible research is essential. Most of the lessons are broadly applicable and scholars from other research cultures are invited to attend.

In depth

Day 1 – Philosophy of science and the social conditions of science

What is science and why should it be trusted? These philosophical questions are the basis of this course. They help us understand the conditions under which science should or should not be trusted. You will learn about scientific credibility as a collective action problem and how the current academic incentive structure encourages researcher behaviour that does not always promote the overall good of credible research.

Introductory lecture

• Science as an epistemic practice and its social foundations
• Open science as transparent and reproducible research

Zoom workshop

• Getting to know each other
• Discussion of science in practice

Day 2 – Where science is now: Can scientific findings be trusted?

You will learn about questionable research practices that undermine the credibility of published research such as p-hacking, selective reporting, specification search, and publication bias.

Introductory lecture

• Systemic and idiosyncratic sources of unreliable research

Zoom workshop

• Your own experiences
• Signs of (in)credible research
• P-hack your way to glory
• What does replicability mean in the social sciences?

Day 3 – Learning to conduct credible research: Pre-registration and Registered Reports

Pre-registration and registered reports are institutional responses to science’s replication problems. Yet, managing this evolving publication landscape requires new skills from the researchers. You will learn how to draft good pre-analysis plans and how to manage everyday problems that you will encounter when working with pre-registrations.

Introductory lecture

• Systemic and idiosyncratic sources of unreliable research

Zoom workshop

• Good and bad pre-registrations
• PAP FAQ

Day 4 – Learning to conduct credible research: Meta-analysis, sensitivity analysis, and specification curves

Introductory lecture

• A hidden universe of uncertainty

Zoom workshop

• Problem sets
• How to implement and interpret sensitivity analysis

Day 5 – Learning to conduct credible research: Reproducibility and version control

Introductory lecture

• Conducting research with the future in mind
• Reproducible environments in R and Stata

Zoom workshop

• Good and bad coding practices

The course outline is preliminary and potentially subject to changes.

How the course will work online

The course combines pre-class material such as readings and pre-recorded videos with daily two-hour interactive Zoom workshops. To make the course as helpful and entertaining as possible, the workshop meetings include small-group work and, short, focused tasks. Participants are expected to actively participate in the interactive Zoom meetings.

Course leader

Alexander Wuttke is a Junior professor in Digitalization and Political Behaviour at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Alexander is an advocate, practitioner, and teacher of transparent and inclusive research.

Target group

Researchers, professional analysts, and advanced students.

Course aim

By the end of this course, you will have gained a comprehensive understanding of what it means to conduct transparent and reproducible research.

You will learn how to conduct research that is transparent, meaning that others can easily access and understand the data, analysis, and methods used in your research. You will also learn how to conduct research that is reproducible, meaning that others can replicate your results using the same data, analysis, and methods.

Credits info

4 EC
You can earn up to four credits for attending this course.
3 ECTS credits – Attend 100% of live sessions and engage fully with class activities.
4 ECTS credits – Attend 100% of live sessions, engage fully with class activities and complete a post-class assignment.

Fee info

GBP 478: ECPR Member
GBP 956: ECPR Non-Member

Scholarships

Funding applications for the 2023 ECPR Summer School in Research Methods and Techniques are now closed.
For more details on funding opportunities for ECPR's other events, please visit our website.