The Center for Open Science is a
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
technology organization based in
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the county seat, seat of government of Albemarle County, Virginia, Albemarle County, which surrounds the ...
with a mission to "increase the openness, integrity, and
reproducibility
Reproducibility, closely related to replicability and repeatability, is a major principle underpinning the scientific method. For the findings of a study to be reproducible means that results obtained by an experiment or an observational study or ...
of scientific research."
Brian Nosek
Brian Arthur Nosek is an American social-cognitive psychologist, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, and the co-founder and director of the Center for Open Science. He also co-founded the Society for the Improvement of Psycholo ...
and Jeffrey Spies founded the organization in January 2013, funded mainly by the
Laura and John Arnold Foundation
Arnold Ventures LLC (formerly known as the Laura and John Arnold Foundation) is a limited liability company that is the philanthropic vehicle of billionaires John D. Arnold and Laura Arnold. As of 2023, the organization had $4.31 billion in asse ...
and others.
The organization began with work in reproducibility of
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
research, with the large-scale initiative
Reproducibility Project: Psychology. A second reproducibility project for
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
biology research has also been started through a partnership with
Science Exchange. In March 2017, the Center published a detailed strategic plan. Brian Nosek posted a letter outlining the history of the Center and future directions.
In 2020, the Center received a grant from
Fast Grants
Fast Grants is an American charity that provides funding for scientific research. The project was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide quick funding to scientists working on research projects that could help with the pandemic.
...
to promote the publication of
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
research on the platform.
In 2021, the Center for Open Science was honored with the in the institutional category for their contribution to fostering research integrity and to improving transparency and accessibility.
Open Science Framework
Reproducibility project
The Open Science Framework (OSF) is an
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
software project that facilitates open collaboration in science research. The framework was initially used to work on a project in the reproducibility of psychology research, but has subsequently become multidisciplinary. The current reproducibility aspect of the project is a crowdsourced empirical investigation of the reproducibility of a variety of studies from psychological literature, sampling from three major journals: ''
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
The ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Psychological Association that was established in 1965. It covers the fields of social and personality psychology. The edi ...
'', ''
Psychological Science
''Psychological Science'', the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is a monthly, peer-reviewed scientific journal published by SAGE Publications. The journal publishes research articles, short reports, and research repor ...
'', and ''
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition''. Scientists volunteer to replicate a study of their choosing from these journals, and follow a structured protocol for designing and conducting a high-powered replication of the key effect. The results were published in 2015.
Preprints
In 2016, OSF started three new
preprint
In academic publishing, a preprint is a version of a scholarly or scientific paper that precedes formal peer review and publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly or scientific journal. The preprint may be available, often as a non-typeset versi ...
services:
engrXiv
engrXiv (''Engineering Archive'') is a preprint repository for engineering launched in July 2016. In 2019, it was announced that engrXiv was legally becoming a part of Open Engineering Inc, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization for the promotion ...
,
SocArXiv
SocArXiv is an online paper server for the social sciences founded by sociologist Philip N. Cohen in partnership with the non-profit Center for Open Science. It is an open archive based on the ArXiv preprint server model used for the natural sci ...
, and (with the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science)
PsyArXiv
PsyArXiv is a preprint repository for the psychological sciences opened in September 2016 and officially launched in December 2016. It is hosted by the Center for Open Science. The preprint service was inspired by the arXiv repository. The servic ...
. It subsequently opened its own preprint server in 2017, OSF Preprints. Its unified search function includes preprints from OSF Preprints, alongside those from other servers such as
Preprints.org,
Thesis Commons
A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...
,
PeerJ
''PeerJ'' is an open access peer-reviewed scientific mega journal covering research in the biological and medical sciences. It officially launched in June 2012, started accepting submissions on December 3, 2012, and published its first articles ...
, and multiple
ArXiv
arXiv (pronounced as "archive"—the X represents the Chi (letter), Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation, but not Scholarly pee ...
repositories.
See also
*
List of metascience research centers and organisations
Association for Interdisciplinary Meta-Research & Open Science(AIMOS)
Brazilian Metascience Research Group (BMRG)Centre for Journalology* Center for Open Science
* Center for Scientific Integrity
* Cochrane Collaboration
European Network for ...
*
List of preprint repositories
This is a list of repositories used to store open science
Open science is the movement to make scientific research (including publications, data, physical samples, and software) and its dissemination accessible to all levels of society, ama ...
*
Metascience
Metascience (also known as meta-research) is the use of scientific methodology to study science itself. Metascience seeks to increase the quality of scientific research while reducing inefficiency. It is also known as "research on research" and ...
*
Open science
Open science is the movement to make scientific research (including publications, data, physical samples, and software) and its dissemination accessible to all levels of society, amateur or professional. Open science is transparent and accessib ...
*
Replication crisis
The replication crisis, also known as the reproducibility or replicability crisis, refers to the growing number of published scientific results that other researchers have been unable to reproduce or verify. Because the reproducibility of empir ...
References
External links
*
Open Science Framework(OSF)
{{Authority control
Scholarly communication
Open science
Collaborative software
Non-profit organizations based in Charlottesville, Virginia
2013 establishments in Virginia
Metascience-related organizations