Lessons Learned on Reproducibility & Citizen Science – Community Call Thurs, Jan. 15 (11 ET)

Our next community call will take place this Thursday, January 15. The call is open to the public and will start at 11:00 am ET. Call in details can be found on the call etherpad (where you can also find notes and the agenda) and on the wiki. (If you have trouble with the toll-free number, try one of the numbers at the bottom of this post.)

The Science Lab meeting is our community call, taking place each month, highlighting recent developments and work of the community relevant to science and the web. Join us to hear more about current projects, find out how you can get involved, and hear from others about their work in and around open research.

This month, our call’s theme is lessons learned on reproducibility and citizen science. We’ll be speaking to Chris Lintott, founder of Zooniverse, on the triumphs and challenges encountered when citizen science brings the efforts and curiosity of the public to bear on research questions; Zooniverse has reached over a million volunteers, giving it and Chris a unique perspective on bringing diverse and massive participation in the sciences together.

On the topic of reproducibility & transparency, we’ll be hearing from Garret Christensen of BITSS on the Best Practices Manual for research transparency he is working on with contributions from Courtney Soderberg of the Center for Open Science. The Manual is “a guide or reference volume of best practices for transparent quantitative social science research,” intended to be updated regularly with strategies, tools and techniques for supporting as much in the social sciences.

Also joining us on the theme of reproducibility will be Tim Errington, discussing the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology, a collaboration between Science Exchange and the Center for Open Science to reproduce the results of 50 major cancer biology studies using their network of labs and researchers. The collaboration is looking to identify the techniques that maximize reproducibility in research; Tim will be joining us to discuss their plans to do so, and progress so far.

Last but not least, the Mozilla Science Lab itself has a major announcement landing next week – stay tuned to the blog and join us on the call on the 15th to find out more.

Have an update, blog post or event you’d like to share relevant to open science? Add it to the etherpad (see ‘Non Verbal Updates’, line ~100). It’s a great way to share what you’re working on and/or interested in with the community. Don’t be shy. Have a look at last month’s notes for an idea of what others contributed to the conversation.

Mark your calendars, tune in and help us spread the word – everyone is welcome. For call-in details and links to the etherpad, visit our wiki page. We hope you’ll join us.

Note: Having trouble dialing in? Try one of these numbers. (Note that they are toll calls and you’ll be charged by your telephone company if the number is long-distance.)

After you enter the extension, you’ll be asked for the conference ID, which is 7677.

  • US/California/Mountain View: +1 650 903 0800, extension 92
  • US/California/San Francisco: +1 415 762 5700, extension 92
  • US/Oregon/Portland: +1 971 544 8000, extension 92
  • CA/Vancouver: +1 778 785 1540, extension 92
  • CA/Toronto: +1 416 848 3114, extension 92
  • UK/London: +44 (0)207 855 3000, extension 92
  • FR/Paris: +33 1 44 79 34 80, extension 92