Berlin | Oxford Summer School on Open and Responsible Research

Background

Transparency and reproducibility of research methods and results are important hallmarks of high quality in all areas, from biomedical to social and physical sciences. In the last few years, many novel approaches, tools, and technologies have emerged that allow for a comprehensive representation of the research process that goes far beyond descriptions of research methods and results as found in traditional journal articles. Open research practices have the potential to revolutionise the way research methods and results are communicated, and to facilitate research collaborations and sharing of research outputs in an unprecedented manner. However, adopting these practices requires knowledge and skills that are not normally taught in undergraduate or graduate degrees. To close this gap, we offer a five-day summer school to guide early career researchers (PhD students and postdocs) towards an open, transparent, and reproducible research workflow. These topics will be embedded in a more general curriculum on research ethics and meta-research. This year a special focus lies on ethics of animal experiments and the 3R principles (reduce, refine, replace). Dedicated workshops in this area will be offered and researchers from disciplines where animal research is relevant are particularly encouraged to apply.

Programme

Details to follow soon. 

You can find the programme of the Oxford | Berlin Autumn School 2023 here.

Certificates

2 ECTS points are awarded for the Summer School.

Application

During the registration, applicants will be asked to briefly state their motivation (300 words) and a description of a potential project that is suitable to apply the knowledge from the summer school. The letter of motivation should contain a brief statement about how the applicant has applied or intends to apply open research practices in their current work, if any other courses were attended, and what particular challenges were encountered in their work, which would be addressed by the summer school. The project outline should give a brief overview of future or recently started research projects, in which participants would like to apply open/reproducible research practices. Applicants with projects in any area of life science research are encouraged to apply. This includes also psychology. If more applications are received than can be accommodated, the organising committee will select participants on the basis of the project and experience that they describe. We will favour applicants who are novices but who have already identified a need for applying the skills acquired. Following acceptance, we require a signed form from the supervisor/PI to indicate that they will support the use of transparent and reproducible practices in the applicant’s research project.

Costs

The course is free to attend. We have a limited number of travel stipends particularly for participants from low and middle income countries (800 Euro), North America (750 Euro), and Europe (300 Euro). Please indicate whether you would like to apply for such a stipend in your application.

Organisers

The summer school is organised by the QUEST Center for Responsible Research, Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH).