Seminar given by Phil McAleer to the University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, on Thursday 27th February 2023.
In response to the Replication Crisis, recent years have seen a notable increase in the number of researchers taking steps to make their work more open and reproducible. However, whilst individuals can readily improve their own and lab practice, they are often limited in what they can do in the larger field simply by not being at the proverbial table. One area however where we, as lecturers, can readily have an influence is in the postgraduate and undergraduate classes we teach and the students that we interact with. As such, at Glasgow, based on the noted issues and reflecting on the necessary skills sought in a graduate researcher, we have rebuilt our research curriculum to centre on reproducible methods with a focus on teaching traditionally overlooked skills, such as data wrangling, visualisation, and dynamic reproducible report writing. These developments have partly been made possible through a change of analytical software from SPSS to R (with all our materials available here: https://psyteachr.github.io/), but fundamental to the approach has been the focus on the skills taught and not simply a change of software. In addition, we have promoted a focus on the importance of the research question and the hypothesis, as opposed to the outcome, by using assignments based on pre-registration and Registered Reports, as well as assessments discussing the benefits and limitations of open science practices, aiming to develop a more holistic view of the issues within our students. Through honest discussions of different approaches and through developing a diverse skillset, we have looked to build a cohort that knows how research should be conducted, can discuss the reasoning behind those ideas, and has the skillset to implement that approach. That said, these developments have not been without issue and, throughout this talk, as well as highlighting what we have implemented and why, I will also discuss what has not worked and present advice on common implementation challenges, ranging from staff training to building an inclusive and supportive student community. In brief, I will share the rationale and reflections behind our approach to developing students as accountable practitioners of reproducible research with the hope that our experiences can be of benefit to others considering similar changes.