Reproducibility, Replicability and Trust in Science (Virtual Conference)

Owing to the ongoing situation with covid-19, this event will be organised as a virtual conference.

This new meeting will bring together an international audience of researchers motivated to improve the robustness of scientific research. It will also involve important stakeholder groups: data and services providers, publishers, institutions and funders that are developing policies and tools.

The overarching theme of this conference is to position the challenge of reproducibility and replicability as a behaviour-change problem that when addressed can lead to culture change within research. The programme will explore how the right incentives can drive positive behaviour, with examples presented from a variety of groups and organisations. We will also focus on the development and implementation of open science tools, which can help researchers produce transparent, trustworthy and therefore potentially better-quality scientific outputs.

The meeting will also stimulate collaboration on practical measures that can improve the quality of scientific enquiry and reporting. We will focus on the evidence base for such measures and tools, and discuss their effectiveness and impact.

The programme will focus on the following areas:

• Infrastructure and tools that make behaviour change possible or easier, led, for example, by service providers of open data infrastructure or publishing mechanisms
• Normative changes, for example, led by peer-led/grassroots groups who are trying to establish new norms in their communities
• Incentives and research assessment, for example, led by funders, research institutions, and publishing platforms/journals
• Policies, for example, set by funders, research institutions, journals and research infrastructures

The format will include presentations from international leaders with ample time for discussion. Abstracts on all areas of the conference are welcome for poster or oral presentations. The participation of early career researchers will be a will be a strong and prominent thread throughout the conference.

The conference will start at 1pm on 9 September and finish at ~4pm on 11 September 2020. All times are given in British Summer Time. See the time where you are here.

Topics will include:

• Incentives
• Infrastructure and tools
• Improving research culture
• Policy initiatives
• Improving research quality

Scientific programme committee

Veronique Kiermer
PLOS, USA

Maria Leptin
EMBO, Germany

Johanna McEntyre
EMBL-EBI, UK

Marcus Munafo
University of Bristol, UK

Keynote speaker

The virtual registration package includes: Access to all live-streamed sessions (including poster sessions and online networking channels), as well as access to all sessions ‘on-demand’ for four weeks after the event.

*To increase the international diversity of attendees at our meetings, we have reduced fees for delegates from Lower and Middle Income Countries (see list of countries here). If you are in need of financial support to cover the registration fees and would like to apply for a bursary, please contact the conference organiser. When applying for a bursary you will be asked to provide a letter stating financial need and a CV.

We welcome abstracts from all areas relevant to the main themes of the meeting, for both oral and poster presentations. Several oral presentations will be chosen from the abstracts submitted.

Abstracts will only be considered from registered delegates. Please use our online abstract submission system and follow the instructions given to ensure your abstract is submitted correctly. All abstracts must be submitted by the deadline. If you are intending to submit more than one abstract, please contact the conference organiser prior to registration.

The scientific programme committee will assess your abstract after the deadline has passed and you will be notified whether you have been selected for an oral or poster presentation.

All those accepted for a poster presentation will be given the opportunity to upload a short video describing their work.

Abstract deadline: 4 August 2020

How to upload an abstract once you have already completed registration:

1. Log back into your registration account using either Firefox or Internet Explorer as your browser, via link above the ‘Share’ button on the right hand column of this page
2. Click on ‘Account’ (top right).
3. Then click on ‘View account history’. This will show a table of your event registrations.
4. In the right-hand column you will see the option to ‘Upload file’ – click on this and select to upload an abstract.