Stage 2: Grow & Inspire
In the next stage, the two main objectives are: (1) to attract more members; and (2) to inspire members to make their workflows more open.
2a. Attracting members
First off, you need to invest a lot in the visibility of your community. Start spreading the word at meetings and in newsletters of faculties or departments. You can also print flyers or stickers (see the Style Guide for examples). It can be very useful to ask your initial members to help out with the promotion. Newcomers are more inclined to join the community if they hear about it from colleagues within their own discipline or department, so make use of the network of your members. In our experience, an effective way to attract new people is when current members, preferably at a leadership position, talk about the community or send out an email to their colleagues, research group, department, or faculty, stating that they joined the community and suggesting their colleagues to join as well. It is also worthwhile to be visible at local events with many newcomers to OS, even when such events are not about OS. Try and get a slot to talk about OS and your community, even if it is just a one-minute pitch. Another option, often easier to accomplish, is to have an information stand at an event, where you can interact with potential new members. It also helps to have a ‘SIGN UP HERE’ desk present at events where newcomers can sign up on the spot. Merchandising and gadgets such as stickers, keycords, and water bottles with the community logo can also help attract new members and increase the community feel (if your budget allows). It needs to be easy for newcomers to find their way in the community, to understand what is offered but also how your community is organized and where they can join in. Aspects of this will be discussed in a later section of this toolkit on governance and organisation of your OSC.
When attracting new members, it is crucial to have a clear communication strategy. For this, it is key to understand your target audience. They are not you! While OS may be high on your agenda, for newcomers it often has less priority. It is crucial not to be condescending about this. People who are particularly passionate about OS might consider their workflows superior to those of others and express such feelings. Being exposed to such perspectives can alienate newcomers and lead to unnecessary resistance by creating a counterproductive “us versus them” distinction. Newcomers are more likely to join a community where they can explore and formulate their opinions and doubts, as opposed to an ‘expert club’ that is judgemental on the workflows of others. It is therefore critical to strike the right tone. Make sure that in all your communication you are inclusive, humble, and respectful. Stress that the OSC is a learning community and that communication is bidirectional: newcomers and experienced peers learn from each other and identify bottlenecks and opportunities to make the transition to OS more fun and fluent, together.
The fact that OS is not top-priority for your target audience also means that you need to make the threshold for events as low as possible. For example, make sure people don’t have to travel a lot to attend events, e.g., by organising events online, or multiple times at different locations across campus. Having to leave the building can literally make a difference for people to attend or not. Make sure that newcomers can identify and relate to events that you are organising. Try to do everything within your limits to bring your events to the people, both in terms of logistics and topics. As mentioned above, free drinks, snacks, and swag are often appreciated (if your budget allows).
2b. Inspire members to make their workflows more open
OSCs have various tools and formats at their disposal to promote engagement with OS. Here we list those that have proved to be particularly effective.
OSC website
On the OSC websites, members indicate their expertise on OS practices: for example, the website of the Open Science Community Rotterdam (OSCR) present the Open Science skills of each member via tags. This provides an easy and low-threshold route to find and contact a colleague when having a question regarding a particular OS topic. This can also facilitate some kind of ‘match-making’ between members who want to share their OS knowledge and members who want to learn about specific aspects of OS. A built-in function that makes these matches automatically would be very useful, otherwise Community Coordinators could email ‘matches’ with the suggestion to meet. This procedure might resemble the format of a dating site, without the romance (but who knows!).
Information on the website can also inspire engagement with OS practices by setting norms. By demonstrating the prevalence of experience and interest in Open Science practices, we communicate that Open Science is the way forward.
Newsletters
A newsletter is an efficient way to reach a large number of people and inform them on OS news and events. Our newsletters are typically well read, with about 50% of the subscribers opening the newsletter and 10% clicking on items in the newsletters1. Make sure to keep them short and appealing and try not to overload your subscribers with emails (once a month is sufficient).
Talks, Workshops, and Study Groups
When choosing the topics of your events (e.g., talks, workshops), we recommend reaching out to your members for input. What topics would they like to be covered? Make sure to have a diverse set of events, in terms of topics and format. Your members will have different levels of experience in opening up their workflows, and it is crucial to cater to the needs of all. Here we present formats for subsequent levels of engagement with OS practices, from lightweight introductions to in-depth and hands-on workshops and study groups (Table 2).
Talks are a useful format for introductions: meetings aimed at sharing information to a broad audience. Typical examples are overviews on open science or introductions to Registered Reports. A particular format of talks frequently adopted in OSCs are lightning talks, short talks (5 - 10 minutes) where colleagues share their practical experience with OS practices. Speakers do not need to be experts, they can be just one step ahead of their colleagues on the use of a particular tool or technique. A set of lightning talks can be centered around one specific practice (e.g., preregistration) or targeted at a particular audience (e.g., PhD candidates) or discipline (e.g., behavioral economics). Many of the talks and workshops organized by OSCs are accessible online and open for reuse. We often complement practical experience from peers with in-depth knowledge from librarians.
In order to attract newcomers, it is beneficial to narrow the scope of a workshop to a particular audience. For instance, newcomers may be more inclined to join a workshop “Open and FAIR data for Economists” than a workshop on Open and FAIR data in general. This, of course, comes with the drawback that many different workshops would need to be organized for different disciplines. If that is not feasible, you can also stick to workshops targeted at the whole university, with the added benefit that they may inspire interdisciplinary insights when people from different disciplines interact with one another.
While (lightning) talks effectively inform and inspire newcomers to Open Science, in-depth workshops provide the next step towards behavioural change.
Workshops are interactive sessions aimed at learning tools that increase openness and transparency. These tools can be specific software or online collaborative platforms, for example how to use R for reproducible data analysis or a practical guide to the Open Science Framework. The session host gives a general introduction of the tool and what problem it tackles, followed by hands-on examples and live tutorials that participants can later adapt for their specific cases. Attendees are asked to prepare in advance, e.g., by bringing their own laptop and having relevant software already installed.
A next level of engagement can be achieved in study groups or mentorship programs, or recurring consultation hours where a group of peers work on how to implement a particular OS practice over a period of time, under the supervision of an experienced mentor. Such initiatives not only provide members with a good knowledge basis, but also allow them to connect with colleagues dealing with similar issues, thereby facilitating the quick development of shared solutions and a stronger sense of community.
For any of the initiatives described above to work, the community needs both an audience (e.g., newcomers) and colleagues who already have experience with one or more OS practices that are willing to share their knowledge. The advantages for newcomers to OS are pretty clear. But what’s in it for the latter group? Pioneers and early adopters, generally proud of their open workflow, often work in environments where their efforts might not be appreciated because it is not common practice. OSCs welcome, validate, and reward their expertise by showing that more people care about improving scholarly practices, thus creating a sense of belonging which can be a strong motivator to stay committed to OS. Moreover, OSCs provide opportunities for leadership roles in setting up local member initiatives, thereby increasing impact and visibility within the local academic environment. This also provides opportunities for members who already actively promote OS to get more traction for their initiatives.
| Lightning talk | Workshop | Study Groups | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Inspire | Engage | Commit |
| Audience | Open | Interested | Invested |
| Speaker | Beginner | Expert | Expert |
Table 2. Overview of event formats with matching level of OS engagement.
Journal Clubs
Journal clubs are regular (e.g., bi-weekly or monthly) meetings in which attendees discuss articles and other documents related to OS. The document to be discussed is communicated in advance via email or social media, with frequent reminders in the days preceding the meeting. Typically, a discussant prepares a short summary with the main point of the document and discussion among attendees is encouraged. The discussant can be one of the organizers, an attendee, or one of the authors of the document examined during the session.
Examples of OSC-led ReproducibiliTea (see Box 3) can be found in Leiden, Groningen, and Rotterdam. In case of in-person journal clubs, the organizers book a room and provide refreshments (or ask all attendees to contribute by bringing something to share). If the journal club is online, the organizers set up the meeting – using Zoom, Jitsi Meet, Microsoft Teams, or any other appropriate service – and moderate the discussion.
Online Webinars and Meet-Ups
Online events are aimed at sharing knowledge with as many people as possible, including non-members of OSCs. Speakers (typically OSC members) are invited to show the audience how to use practical tools to improve research openness and transparency. Two examples are Using Gitbook for your course materials (part of the OSCU OSCoffee initiative) and Introduction to Git(Hub) (organized by OSCR).
OSC coordinators typically set up the meeting – using Zoom, Jitsi Meet, Microsoft Teams, or any other appropriate service – and moderate the discussion.
Member Initiatives
The strength of a community depends on the contributions of its members. Members can increase the magnitude and diversity of the activities organised within the community while simultaneously easing the organisational burden on the shoulders of Community Coordinators. Member Initiatives are typically tailored for a smaller subsection of the community, and focus on specific open science areas. While members are free to develop their own initiatives, it can be even more effective to promote existing formats that have proven successful in other institutions, for instance ReproducibiliTea journal clubs, R.I.O.T. Science Clubs, and Data Champions (see Box 3). These initiatives can find a place under the umbrella of the local OSC. Community Coordinators can promote and support these initiatives by featuring them on the website, newsletter, and social media, making use of the community network. Colleagues from institutions that already have such initiatives in place can be invited to share their experience or be interviewed at events or in newsletters, to motivate local members to kickstart local instances. Regardless of whether members devise their own initiatives or start from existing examples, these are powerful opportunities to gain organizational and leadership experience, which is increasingly relevant for career development in academia.
ReproducibiliTea ReproducibiliTea journal clubs help early-career researchers establish local Open Science journal clubs at their universities. Topics of discussions range from ways to improve science (e.g., by means of statistical reforms) to social implications of the Open Science movement.
R.I.O.T. Science Club The R.I.O.T. Science Club organizes seminars where researchers can learn about Open Science reforms and practices. Speakers give talks, discuss papers, provide insights into software and tools, and recommend (new) statistical techniques, with the main goal to encourage Reproducible, Interpretable, Open, and Transparent Science.
Data Champions Data Champions are volunteers who promote good research data management (RDM) and support Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable (FAIR) research principles.
The Carpentries The Carpentries teach basic computational and data science skills to researchers. The project comprises the Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry, and Library Carpentry communities.
SIOS The Student Initiative for Open Science (SIOS) spreads the message and practices of Open Science within the student community by organizing lectures, debates, and workshops. In addition, SIOS promotes the implementation of open practices in university programs, e.g., open access to all articles and preregistration of thesis projects.
Box 3. Examples of successful initiatives and formats to promote Open Science that can be rolled out locally in an Open Science Community.
Footnotes
-
These numbers are based on the newsletter of the Open Science Community Utrecht. ↩