May 17, 2023  –  May 19, 2023  |  Berkeley, CA

Research Transparency and Reproducibility Training (RT2) 2023

BITSS held its Research Transparency and Reproducibility Training (RT2) on May 17-19.

RT2 provided participants with an overview of tools and practices for transparent and reproducible social science research. The program was developed and delivered by leading researchers from across the social sciences and provide participants with opportunities for collaborative work and skills-building. Participants exchanged feedback and received support from instructors through daily sessions.

Program

An agenda is available here. The program was distributed over three days, covering the following topics:

  • Research ethics and Mertonian norms for transparency and reproducibility
  • Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines in journals
  • Improved specification through study pre-registration and pre-analysis plans
  • Appropriate use of statistics and interpretation of statistical evidence
  • Hands-on practice with version control using Git (GitHub or the Command Line)
  • Dynamic documents with R or Stata
  • Data sharing and management practices for reproducibility
  • Evaluating causal explanations for rigor and reproducibility

As well as applications to behavioral and social science research, with a focus on aging and health disparities:

  • Power calculations for aging research
  • Reporting guidelines and helpful tips for economics conducting health research
  • Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) data and cross-national harmonization
  • Using the Gateway to Global Aging Data
  • Maintaining reproducibility and open science in the context of sensitive research
  • Reproducible analysis of administrative, individual-level mortality data
  • Examining the relationship between the researcher and community in health disparities research

You can learn more about the RT2 curriculum and find materials from past RT2 events here.

Faculty included (in order of presentation): Edward Miguel (UC Berkeley and CEGA/BITSS), Sean Grant (University of Oregon), Alexander Coppock (Yale University), Thad Dunning (UC Berkeley), Jesse Gubb (J-PAL), Michael Walker (UC Berkeley and CEGA), Dan Benjamin (UCLA), Joshua Goldstein (UC Berkeley), Alden Gross (Johns Hopkins University), Jinkook Lee (USC), Dystan Phillips (USC), Bruce Link (UC Riverside), Fernando Hoces de la Guardia (BITSS), Aaron Culich (DLab), Michael Stepner (University of Toronto), David Lo (UC Riverside), Erin Taylor (RAND Corporation), Karla Palos Castellanos (California Policy Lab), Sarah Hoover (California Policy Lab), Andrew Bray (UC Berkeley, BIDS), Daniela Pinto Veizaga (CEGA).

 

Contact

Contact Grace Han with questions about RT2 2023.