Open Practice Badges

Starting in 2014, authors of accepted manuscripts in Psychological Science, Clinical Psychological Science, and Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science are eligible to earn up to three badges in recognition of open scientific practices. These include an Open Data badge, an Open Materials badge, and a Preregistered badge.

To apply for one or more of these badges acknowledging open practices, authors must provide the information requested in the Open Practices Disclosure form, which is sent to all authors of accepted manuscripts. Unless the authors decide not to apply for badges, the form will be published with the article as supplemental online material.

Badge icons will be displayed at the beginning of the article, and information related to open practices will be published in a note titled “Open Practices” that will appear at the end of the article. Badges are awarded following the disclosure method, in which authors provide public statements affirming achievement of badge criteria.

The following badges are available:

Open Data Badge

Open Data badge for making publicly available the digitally shareable data necessary to reproduce the reported result. This includes annotated copies of the code or syntax used for all exploratory and principal analyses. If the data contains sensitive, personal information, a PM (Protected Access) notation will be added if the authors post their data according to the guidelines regarding protected access repositories. 

Open Materials Badge

Open Materials badge for making publicly available the digitally shareable materials/methods necessary to reproduce the reported results. Authors are also encouraged to make publicly available video recordings of their study procedures; in return, a (BM)Visualized Methods notation will be added to the authors’ Open Materials badge.

Preregistered Badge*

Preregistered badge for having a preregistered design and analysis plan for the reported research and reporting results according to that plan. An analysis plan includes specification of the variables and the analyses that will be conducted. Please note that “Preregistration” does not require all analyses to be confirmatory (planned in advance); it merely requires investigators to state up front which analyses are confirmatory and which are exploratory. High-quality exploratory research is more than welcome in the pages of Psychological Science, as long as authors explicitly acknowledge that the analyses are exploratory and, when relevant, acknowledge potential constraints on the replicability of these findings. If the analysis plan was registered prior to observation of outcomes, the Open Practices note will include the notation DE (Data Exist). If there were strongly justified changes to an analysis plan, the Open Practices note will include the notation TC (Transparent Changes). Authors who have additional unreported registrations or unreported analyses without strong justification (as determined by the Editor-in-Chief) will not qualify for a badge.

Data, materials, and analysis plans must be permanent, time-stamped, and uneditable. Qualifying public, open-access repositories are committed to preserving data, materials, and/or registered analysis plans and keeping them publicly accessible via the web into perpetuity. Examples include the Open Science Framework (OSF) and the various Dataverse networks. Hundreds of other qualifying data/materials repositories are listed at re3data.org. Preregistration of an analysis plan must take place via a publicly accessible registry system (e.g., OSF, ClinicalTrials.gov, AsPredicted.org, or other trial registries in the WHO Registry Network, institutional registration systems). Personal websites and most departmental websites do not qualify as repositories.

There are, of course, circumstances in which it is not possible or advisable to share data, materials, or a research plan publicly. For example, there are cases in which sharing participant data could violate confidentiality. In these cases, the authors may provide an explanation of such circumstances in the Alternative Note section of the disclosure form. The information the authors provide will be included in the article’s Open Practices note.

More information about these badges can be found in Eric Eich’s January 2014 editorial in Psychological Science, and a wiki on the badges can be found at OSF.