UCSF

Background: Given the growing attention to reproducibility in the biomedical sciences there is an increasing need for hands-on reproducibility training for biomedical researchers. To address this need, the Library, Graduate Division, and Open Science Group of University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) collaborated in the Fall of 2019 to create a for-credit workshop series on biomedical reproducibility. The series was targeted at graduate students and postdocs, and aimed to translate recommendations for best practice into actionable steps and training.

Description: The eight-part workshop series was designed to meet the Rigor and Reproducibility requirements of the National Institutes of Health, and included sessions on open data, open code, open protocols, open access, designing rigorous experiments, engaging with new forms of peer review, and building a reproducible lab. Sessions were taught by experts from UCSF as well as outside experts in reproducibility and open science. In order to measure the effectiveness of the course, we conducted pre and post workshop assessments to compare attendees' knowledge of reproducibility before and after the series, and to measure uptake of reproducible practices. The larger goal of this project was for subject experts to provide hands-on training that will improve research workflows, stimulate conversations about open science and research reproducibility, and build an open curriculum that can be replicated by other institutions.

Conclusion: After completing the workshop series participants indicated they had a more extensive understanding of the workshop topics and were much more likely to talk with their lab about reproducibility, examine their research for potential bias, and share their research code. In addition, 50% of participants mentioned that they intended to keep better records and spend more time on documentation because of the series. Given the success of the workshops, the Library plans on updating the curriculum so it can be delivered as a virtual series in Spring 2021.