The winter holidays are over, but fear not! OSCR comes back from a well-deserved break with the webinar Discussing Failures in Science. Following up a previous OSCR ReproducibiliTea talk, the Journal of Trial and Error (JOTE) returns to discuss the importance of recognizing and discussing failure in science.

Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, Stefan Gaillard, is joined by JOTE’s editor of psychology, Sean Devine, and author, Kristel De Groot, to discuss the journal’s first issue and the role failure should play in the Open Science community more broadly. In their talk, they will describe their unique experiences with the journal, each from a different perspective: Stefan as a co-founder, Sean as an editor, and Kristel as a contributing author. Throughout the course of their talk, they will try to answer questions like: Why are scientists so hesitant to share their nonsignificant or unexpected findings? What failures contribute to the literature and which ones do not? Who bears the lion’s share of responsibility for the abundance of positive publication bias in the literature? Journals? Editors? Scientists? Are we all to blame? Or no one? More importantly, how do we fix it? The answer to this question, they propose, are platforms that publish negative results in combination with historical, philosophical, and meta-scientific reflection; one example of such a platform would be a scholarly journal that embraces trial and error. Based on each speaker’s experience with JOTE’s first issue, Stefan, Sean, and Kristel will share their thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of such a novel platform.

Kristel’s first article in JOTE can be read here, as part of the journal’s first issue:

De Groot, K. (2020). Burst Beliefs – Methodological Problems in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and Implications for Its Use. Journal of Trial and Error, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.36850/mr1.

The event will take place on January 19th 2021 at 15:00 CET and will last 60’. An invitation has been sent to researchers in the OSCR mailing list. This email includes a calendar invite in Outlook, the Zoom link, meeting ID, and password. If you are not part of the mailing list but would like to join, please contact Antonio.

During the Zoom meeting, please follow these guidelines:

  • wear headphones
  • mute your microphone
  • video is optional (in case of connection issues, you may be asked to turn it off)
  • pay attention to the moderator (which will be Antonio)
  • if you have questions
    • click on the Raise Hand button and the moderator will unmute you; or
    • write down your question in the chat and the moderator will read it
  • avoid talking over each other and make sure that everyone can have their opportunity to speak
  • arrive 5 minutes before the beginning of the call, to familiarize with the online environment and solve possible technical issues

Please remember that attendees of every OSCR event (in-person or online) are required to follow our Code of Conduct.

Hope to see many of you!

Take care,

Sean Devine, Stefan Gaillard, Kristel De Groot, and Antonio Schettino