Building capacity to encourage research reproducibility and #MakeResearchTrue

Rigor and reproducibility instruction in academic medical libraries

Background

Concerns over scientific reproducibility have grown in recent years, leading the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to require researchers to address these issues in research grant applications. Starting in 2020, training grants were required to provide a plan for educating trainees in rigor and reproducibility. Academic medical centers have responded with different solutions to fill this educational need. As experienced instructors with expertise in topics relating to reproducibility, librarians can play a prominent role in providing trainings, classes, and events to educate investigators and trainees, and bolstering reproducibility in their communities.

Case Presentations

This special report summarizes efforts at five institutions to provide education in reproducibility to biomedical and life sciences researchers. Our goal is to expand awareness of the range of approaches in providing reproducibility services in libraries.

Conclusions

Reproducibility education by medical librarians can take many forms. These specific programs in reproducibility education build upon libraries' existing collaborations, with funder mandates providing a major impetus. Collaborator needs shaped the exact type of educational or other reproducibility support and combined with each library's strengths to yield a diversity of offerings based on capacity and interest. As demand for and complexity of reproducibility education increases due to new institutional and funder mandates, reproducibility education will merit special attention.

Health sciences librarians' engagement in open science: a scoping review

OBJECTIVES

To identify the engagement of health sciences librarians (HSLs) in open science (OS) through the delivery of library services, support, and programs for researchers.

METHODS

We performed a scoping review guided by Arksey and O'Malley's framework and Joanna Briggs' Manual for Scoping Reviews. Our search methods consisted of searching five bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, LISTA, and Web of Science Core Collection), reference harvesting, and targeted website and journal searching. To determine study eligibility, we applied predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria and reached consensus when there was disagreement. We extracted data in duplicate and performed qualitative analysis to map key themes.

RESULTS

We included fifty-four studies. Research methods included descriptive or narrative approaches (76%); surveys, questionnaires, and interviews (15%); or mixed methods (9%). We labeled studies with one or more of FOSTER's six OS themes: open access (54%), open data (43%), open science (24%), open education (6%), open source (6%), and citizen science (6%). Key drivers in OS were scientific integrity and transparency, openness as a guiding principle in research, and funder mandates making research publicly accessible.

CONCLUSIONS

HSLs play key roles in advancing OS worldwide. Formal studies are needed to assess the impact of HSLs' engagement in OS. HSLs should promote adoption of OS within their research communities and develop strategic plans aligned with institutional partners. HSLs can promote OS by adopting more rigorous and transparent research practices of their own. Future research should examine HSLs' engagement in OS through social justice and equity perspectives.

Excel for data visualization in academic health sciences libraries: a qualitative case study

Background

Data visualization is a growing topic of discussion and area of educational programming in health sciences libraries. This paper synthesizes information on eight institutions' experiences in offering Excel-focused data visualization workshops with the goal of providing an overview of the current state of educational offerings in this area.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted by phone and email with librarians at institutions that offer Excel-focused workshops, which were identified by reviewing the websites of Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries members and the 2019 Medical Library Association annual meeting program.

Results

Librarians from six institutions were interviewed, online class materials from one institution were reviewed, and information from the author's institution was included, resulting in a total of eight institutions. Educational offerings in Excel-focused data visualization ranged from one workshop to five workshops in a series, which typically first presented information for beginners and then progressed to more advanced data visualization skills. Regarding motivations for offering these workshops, librarians stated that they were committed to providing instruction in software programs that were already familiar to users. Workshop evaluations, when available, were generally positive.

Discussion

Because of its widespread availability and usage, Excel offers a compelling opportunity for providing hands-on data visualization instruction in health sciences libraries.

Emotional responding: Integration of multiple constructs and association with psychological health

OBJECTIVE

Numerous psychological constructs exist to describe different facets of emotional responding, but they have rarely been examined together. We empirically modeled the associations between four psychological constructs (mindfulness, emotional nonacceptance, experiential avoidance, and anxiety sensitivity) of individuals' responses to their affective experience, hypothesizing that a bifactor model would fit the data best.

METHOD

We used exploratory structural equation modeling, a novel latent variable modeling framework, to compare five measurement models of emotional responding in an online community sample (N = 307).

RESULTS

A bifactor model including a general emotional responding factor had substantial factor loadings from nearly all items, with mixed results for specific factors. Exploratory analyses supported the significant association of avoidant emotional responding and psychopathology/well-being.

CONCLUSION

The general avoidant emotional responding factor appears to overlap most directly with experiential avoidance and may be a transtheoretical construct relevant to mental health.