The document, authored by Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia's Center for Open Science, addresses the challenge of improving openness and reproducibility in scientific research. It contrasts scientific norms—such as openness, universalism, disinterestedness, and organized skepticism—with prevalent counternorms like secrecy, particularism, self-interestedness, and organized dogmatism, which are often reinforced by current incentive structures emphasizing publication over research accuracy. The document outlines that incentives for individual success tend to prioritize getting research published rather than ensuring its correctness, contributing to reproducibility challenges in science.
To counteract these tendencies, the document advocates for systemic changes across policy, incentives, community standards, infrastructure, and user experience to make open practices not only possible but easy, rewarding, and normative. Initiatives highlighted include the Open Science Framework (OSF) for collaboration, registration, and archiving; the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines for data and methodological transparency; and Registered Reports to promote pre-study peer review and reduce publication bias. The adoption of open practices is tracked and incentivized through tools like badges and visible reporting, supported by growing institutional engagement and integrations with research repositories. Collectively, these reforms seek to realign research culture and practice towards greater transparency, collaboration, and reproducibility, thus enhancing the credibility and reliability of scientific findings.
