KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A partnership between the EQUATOR Network and the Centre for Open Science (COS) could further the objectives of both organisations and raise awareness of best practices for open science.
• Anticipated activities include educational outreach for researchers and updated reporting guidelines.

The open science movement aims to improve the transparency, accessibility, and reproducibility of scientific research. In May this year, the EQUATOR Network and Center for Open Science (COS) announced a 3-year collaboration in the hopes of accelerating the uptake of open science practices in health research through a series of shared activities.

A shared mission

Since launching the open science framework in 2012 – a project management tool designed to streamline collaboration on, and dissemination of, scientific research – COS have been on a mission to facilitate and incentivise open research practices. This approach is highly complementary to EQUATOR’s objective to improve research quality and transparency, leading the organisations to collaborate on development of the Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines in 2015.

Nearly a decade later, the two are joining forces officially.

What can we expect?

Planning is ongoing, but several potential strategies are being explored:

• Educating researchers on processes such as writing and protocol creation, through a combination of outreach materials and toolkits
• Developing toolkits to guide reviewers in assessing data sharing practices and protocol deviation
• Increasing the visibility and use of existing tools, such as COS registration templates and EQUATOR reporting guidelines, through shared hosting
• Integrating practices such as protocol posting, data sharing, and study replication into existing EQUATOR reporting guidelines, where these are not yet included.

In particular, COS is keen to utilise EQUATOR’s existing systems to enhance research credibility by promoting the uptake of preregistration.

The potential impact

Open science practices are already included in CONSORT, but inclusion in further reporting guidelines could scale-up adoption substantially. In addition, the robustness of EQUATOR’s reporting standards could offer further structure and visibility to COS’ ongoing research.

Director of the EQUATOR Network, David Moher, has expressed his excitement around the partnership:

“Since its inception in 2006, the EQUATOR Network has worked hard to help improve comprehensive and transparent reporting of research. Collaborating with COS will help further achieve this objective.”

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