About our OSIP
Why Open Science?
During the 2010s, the scientific world became aware of the so-called “replication crisis” as different sciences discovered that study results are often not reproducible. In the field of psychology, in particular, large-scale replication projects (e.g., the Many Labs Projects, the Reproducibility Project: Psychology) indicate that more than 50% of current psychological research findings are not replicable.
This realization spurred many developments, such as the Transparency and Openness Guidelines (TOP Guidelines) implemented by thousands of journals to foster standards for scientific publications (e.g., code transparency, preregistration). The ultimate goal is to generate fewer false positives and more actual knowledge, or, in the words of John Ioannidis, to make more published research true.
Who are we?
To foster the implementation of open and transparent science, the Department of Psychology of LMU Munich established the LMU’s Open Science Initiative in Psychology (OSIP).
The committee was initiated in July 2015 by Felix Schönbrodt, Markus Maier, Moritz Heene, and Michael Zehetleitner.
In February 2021, the OSIP's lead was taken over by Ramona Schödel, Lena Schiestel and Larissa Sust.
Beyond our steering committee, the OSIP consists of numerous members representing all research units of our Department, and spanning all career levels from students to full professors. We gladly welcome everyone interested in making research at our Department more transparent.
The OSIP is affiliated with LMU’s interdisciplinary Open Science Center. Furthermore, we are part of the German Reproducibility Network (GNR) and the German Netzwerk der Open-Science-Initiativen (NOSI).
What is our mission?
- We monitor international developments in the area of Open Science and communicate them to the department.
- We organize workshops to teach Open Science skills (e.g., How do I write a good pre-registration? What practical steps are necessary for Open Data?).
- We develop concrete suggestions for implementing Open Science at the department, for example, proposals for tenure-track criteria, hiring criteria, or Ph.D. supervision.
- We channel the discussion concerning standards of research quality and transparency at the department. Sharing the same scientific values, the concrete implementation of Open Science may differ between research areas. We encourage all units of our department to discuss our suggestions and provide feedback and further ideas. We strive for a department-wide consensus on Open Science practices.
To learn more about Open Science, attend our workshops and check out our open material.