This weekend I worked with an undergraduate student on a research proposal for undergraduate funding in the fall. I also talked to a colleague on Friday about the difficulties of publishing undergraduate (mostly summer) research and continuation with different students. Replication and continuation are always a challenge. That’s why I thought tonight’s Lilly Conference online 2021 session entitled “Addressing the Replication Crisis While Teaching Research Methods in Psychology” by Amanda C. Egan from Marian University Indianapolis was particularly interesting. Egan talked about the Collaborative Replication and Education Project (CREP), an initiative of the Open Science Framework (OSF) aimed at addressing the replication issues in behavioral sciences though crowdsourcing efforts. Egan redesigned a foundational methods in psychology course to include CREP with the focus on collaboration and replication. Undergraduate students participate in the process and help collect data that becomes part of a peer-reviewed study. Egan mentioned using several assignments related to CREP in their course and is willing to share materials (including Canvas modules, assignments and grading rubrics). Egan lets students select studies that they can replicate, they rank studies and form groups, they read the empirical article and select theory, they select additional empirical research, they plan and design direct replication, they plan & design an extension study, and they get IRB and CREP approval! Egan talked about the resources available through CREP, and that there are other ways to incorporate CREP that do not look like a large APA style research paper and presentation. Some variations that Egan described were to have the entire class analyze the same CREP study and groups plan their own extension to then publish. The “strength in numbers” approach Egan described was to have students select a study and replicate it with an intention to submit for peer-reviewed publication. The advantage here is that there is a protocol to work from and the opportunity to increase the power through more numbers. The mentorship approach assigns upper-level or graduate students as PIs to guide smaller groups.
Replication with publication is a win for students, instructors, science, and society
Amanda C. Egan, Lilly Conference Online, May 2021
Egan gave me several ideas for projects and collaborative research. I wonder if this approach can be used with genomic data as part of undergraduate research or the BIT 295 course? While students may not be able to generate the data, they will gain experience and practice important skills.
