Content from Introduction to the Open Science Team Agreement
Last updated on 2023-11-06 | Edit this page
Overview
Questions
- What is the Open Science Team Agreement?
- How can librarians use it?
Objectives
- Discuss the role and the benefits of lab manuals and agreements
- Describe how the Open Science Team Agreement can be used to explain open science concepts
Introduction: What is open science?
Open science is the principle and practice of making research products and processes available to all, while
- respecting diverse cultures,
- maintaining security and privacy, and
- fostering collaborations, reproducibility, and equity.
Source: NASA Transform to Open Science
In practice, open science requires cultural change at the organizational level, within lab groups, and for individuals.
Open science offers opportunities for librarians, research data managers and [other roles] to engage in outreach and instructional activities to assist with this transition.
Foundation: Lab Manuals
Many researchers use lab manuals as documents that outline practices, techniques and institutional knowledge for students and researchers in a laboratory setting. They also act as a compact or agreement that makes group norms and expectations transparent.
Examine the examples below to get a sense of what is included in a lab manual.
For more lab manual examples:
- Fraser Lab Compact and Philosophy
- Fay Lab Manual
- Benjamin-Chung Lab Manual
- CCT-Data Science Team Protocols
Possible Answers include:
- Best practices for presentations
- Conflict of interest statement
- Code of conduct
- Communication tools
- Authorship practices
- File management practices
- Data storage recommendations
- Lab values
- University policies
Open Science Team Agreement
Inspired by lab manuals, the Bay Area Open Science group created this open science team agreement to codify a commitment to certain research practices. Intended for collaborations of any size, the Open Science team agreement allows group members to start conversations, learn about open science and commit to new open practices. Groups can return to and revise the agreement at regular intervals as needed. We recommend creating the team agreement for a new project or team.
The Open Science Team Agreement template includes brief explanations of key open science topics, practices and products that group members might like to discuss, learn about and adopt including:
| Topic | Sub-topic |
|---|---|
| Authorship and collaboration | Persistent Identifiers, Author order, and Inclusive Science |
| Articles and research materials | Preregistration, Methods and Protocols, Preprints, Open Access, Theses and Dissertations, and Presentations |
| Data and code | Documentation, Data, Software and Code |
| Communication and Impact | Copyright, Research Profiles, Social Media |
Within those categories the template offers suggestions for products and services that address specific workflow needs.
- Team agreements are living documents
- A Lab Manual is a broader, foundational document that also covers university policy, employment details, lab safety, equipment access
- An Open Science Team Agreement might live within a Lab Manual An Open Science Team Agreement is specific to open science practices and workflows
- An Open Science Team Agreement might be adopted by a group of collaborators from different labs or different institutions.
Key Points
- The Open Science Team Agreement gives researchers and other stakeholders the tools they need to understand and advocate for open science practices within their laboratory, department or the broader community.
- Open Science Team Agreement are living, editable documents.
- Librarians can use the Open Science Team Agreement to start conversations with their research groups and departments.
Content from Working with Open Science Team Agreement
Last updated on 2023-11-06 | Edit this page
Overview
Questions
- How do you access and edit the team agreement?
- How do you use it for an example domain?
Objectives
- Download the Team Agreement from Zenodo
- Locate an appropriate subject data repository for an example research group
- Edit the Team Agreement
Accessing the Open Science Team Agreement
The Open Science Team Agreements are available from Zenodo at https://zenodo.org/record/7154100. On this page you will find versions for Word, Google Doc, Overleaf, and plain text. We recommend that researchers save a project-specific copy to modify - don’t forget to give it a good file name!
Exploring the Agreement (10 min)
Group Discussion or Think-Pair-Share
Go to Zenodo and download a copy of the Open Science Team Agreement on the platform of your choice.
Skim the content of the agreements. Which of these are topics that you regularly discuss with researchers and which ones are new to you? Which of these areas are more familiar to researchers you work with?
Jot down a couple of notes and we will discuss as a group.
Customizing the Team Agreement
It can be helpful to think how a particular research team might customize the agreements for their workflows. Let’s practice customizing the Open Science Team agreements for an example team.
Case Study - Dr. Sheri Lee (Fictional)
Dr. Sheri Lee is a clinical researcher at UC San Francisco working on the link between lung cancer and pollution. She collects clinical data from the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and also gathers data via patient questionnaires. Her team consists of herself, one clinical research coordinator, and two graduate students, and she is committed to giving credit to their work. She shares her preprints on MedRxiv, and her data in the Vivli clinical repository. She doesn’t currently share her postprints, or routinely share slides or her analysis code.
Customizing the Agreement for Dr. Lee (10 min)
You are meeting with Dr. Lee this week to talk about Open Science practices. Make two edits to the Open Science Team Agreement based on what you currently know about Dr. Lee’s workflow to customize it for this team. In addition, what is one suggestion you have for a new practice they might try?
Share the edits you made with the class and provide your rationale.
Possible edits to the Open Science Team Agreement based on current practices include:
- Adding MedRxiv to the preprints section
- Familiarizing team members with CREDIT system to formalize author contributions
- Designating Vivli as their data repository
Ideas for edits for new practices to introduce
- Code in Zenodo
- Postprints in her institutional repository
- Upload presentation slides to her institutional repository
Showcasing the Team Agreement
Researchers are encouraged to share their completed Open Science Team Agreement by uploading it to Zenodo and using the hashtag #openscienceteamagreement so that others can find it.
Key Points
- You access and edit the Team Agreement by visiting the Zenodo page, where you can find editable versions for Word, Google Doc, Overleaf, and plain text.
- You can modify the highlighted yellow sections of the Team Agreement to suit your needs and delete any sections that are irrelevant to your domain. For example, you could list a subject specific repository where research outputs will be stored.
Content from Designing your Outreach Plan
Last updated on 2023-11-06 | Edit this page
Overview
Questions
- What research audience do you want to work with?
- How will you use the team agreement for outreach with your chosen audience?
Objectives
- Create a list of potential outreach audiences
- Exchange effective outreach practices with peers
- Familiarize yourself with outreach materials provided and plan next steps
Identify your Local Audience
Now that you have some familiarity with the Open Science Team Agreement let’s think about how you can use them with your research audience. First let’s brainstorm some potential audiences. This outreach can be at the level of a department, lab, or group.
Departments
What departments do you cover? Take a look at their departmental website and identify one or two faculty members
- Can you tell how open their current research is?
- Do they have their own profile page, website, or GitHub repository that you can consult?
- Consult OSF institutions, preprints or registrations to search for affiliated contributors.
- How and when does this department meet? (In person, online, etc)
Lab groups
- Follow department event and seminar topics
- Search campus data and publication repositories, profile systems for possible champions/interested groups
Open science groups
Are there any working groups, journal clubs or other community groups that focus on open science? Examples:
Outreach Strategies
Recognizing that outreach is a difficult aspect of librarianship, let’s discuss concrete strategies you can use for more successful outreach with research teams.
Plan your Outreach
Let’s wrap up by putting it all together into a plan!
Outreach Resources
Email Outreach Template
What messaging will resonate with your audience? Consider how you might adapt the following email template for your selected audience.
Hi [Faculty Meeting Organizer’s Name],
I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to suggest a topic for your upcoming faculty meeting: Open Science Team Agreements.
Open Science is all about making research more transparent and collaborative, which can benefit us and our students in many ways. I’d love to share some practical tips and insights on how we can adopt Open Science principles in the department. I’m promoting an Open Science Team Agreement that can help researchers make open science actionable.
If it fits your next meeting’s agenda, could we slot in a brief presentation on this topic? I think it could spark some interesting discussion.
Looking forward to your thoughts on this.
Thanks, [Your Name]
Slide Deck and Handout
This Open Science Team Agreement outreach slide deck is available for you to customize for your audience and timing.
Possible edits include:
- Adding your library logo
- Adding info about your library services
- Adding examples relevant to your audiences domain
- Cutting or adding content
Customizable Slides - hint: after navigating to GitHub, click “view raw” to download the slides.
Key Points
- Generate a list of library champions (departments or individuals), lab groups, and open science groups. Solicit interest by sending an outreach message to them using the above template.
- Reflect on the appropriate medium for your chosen audience. Decide if you will use the slides, handout, or another teaching aid to deliver your open science team agreements lesson.