Jessica Schleider, PhD, on Open Science and Replicability Practices and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Academia

Research Matters Podcast

Jessica Schleider, PhD, is an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Stony Book University and a graduate of the Clinical Psychology Program at Harvard University. When in graduate school, she learned about open science – not from her courses but from the Twitter-spere and later from The Black Goat Podcast. What she learned was compelling and unsettling and kept her up at night as she thought about the state of scientific research in general and her research in particular.

Wanting to sleep better, she “made an inner commitment to myself that if I got the chance to build a lab, open science would be part of it from the start… Especially if someone was pursuing a relatively new area of research, I didn’t feel like there was any other way to go about it…The curtain had been pulled up, so I couldn’t trust my own work anymore unless these things were more clearly and rigorously incorporated.”

In today’s episode, Dr. Schleider and I discus open science principles, how open science differs from run-of-the-mill research, and why it can feel daunting and intimidating to embrace open-science principles.

Dr. Schleider is also a strong advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusivity in academia. We discuss the ways academia has traditionally favored those from privileged backgrounds. We also discuss specific steps she has used to ensure that her lab is a safe place for people from underrepresented groups, that opportunities in her lab are clear and transparent, and that a protocol has been set in place should there be any discriminatory behavior or remarks that originate in the lab over which she presides.

In this episode, you’ll learn…

• How Dr. Schleider stumbled upon open science and the replicability revolution
• Why she decided to implement open science practices
• That Dr. Schleider thought she had been doing pre-registration because she had been registering clinical trials
• How open science pre-registration differs from traditional registrations
• Where Dr. Schleider registers her studies
• Why open science can be frustrating to implement
• Why open science requires a mindset change
• The stages of registered reports

Tips from the episode

On where to learn about open science…

• Improve Your Statistical Inferences Coursea course (see link below)
• The Black Goat Podcast (see link below)

On the differences between regular registration and open science preregistration…

• Open science preregistration aims to make sure researchers don’t fall into biases, outcome switch, or p-hack. In open science, when you deviate from the plan, you’re transparent about it.
• Traditional preregistrations don’t require an analytic plan or explain how the data will be analyzed.

On open science procedures she uses…

• Always file a preregistration
• Detail how effect size is computed
• Streamline process for double-checking data set preparation and analysis
• Document code
• Make all of your work accessible to the public

On leveling the playing field in research and academia…

• Reconsider the GRE
• Make admissions more transparent
• Make education less expensive
• Formalize opportunities to get involved in research (so that those opportunities are not reserved for those who know to seek and ask for those opportunities)

Links from the episode:

• Daniel Lakens’ Improve Your Statistical Inferences course
• The Black Goat Podcast
• Dr. Schelider’s lab
• Dr. Schelider’s lab manual
• As-predicted template
• Template for pre-registration for beginners (from her lab)
• Jamovi – easy to use R package
• Documents to guide those who are considering applying to her lab or grad school in general:
  • How to apply to her lab
  • Guide to applying to grad school in clinical psychology

• Find Dr. Schelider on Twitter

Research Matters Podcast is hosted by Jason Luoma, who can be found on Twitter @jasonluoma or Facebook at: facebook.com/jasonluomaphd. You download the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify.