Which statement best describes open science?

Which statement best describes open science?

• A. Open science is keeping data private
• B. Open science is making research methods and data accessible; preregistration and data sharing promote transparency and reproducibility
• C. Open science discourages collaboration
• D. Open science is about publishing only in high-impact journals

Answer: (B)

Open science centers on making research processes open and observable so others can verify, reproduce, and build on them. It isn’t just about publishing somewhere; it’s about the whole workflow being accessible. Preregistration involves outlining the planned hypotheses, methods, and analyses before collecting data, which helps prevent biased practices like p-hacking and HARKing. Data sharing and providing access to code and materials let other researchers reproduce results and reuse data for new questions. When preregistration and sharing are part of the practice, transparency and reproducibility are promoted across the research cycle, which is the heart of open science. The idea of keeping data private, discouraging collaboration, or focusing only on where you publish doesn’t capture that openness and collaborative spirit, which is why those descriptions don’t fit open science as well.

Open science centers on making research processes open and observable so others can verify, reproduce, and build on them. It isn’t just about publishing somewhere; it’s about the whole workflow being accessible. Preregistration involves outlining the planned hypotheses, methods, and analyses before collecting data, which helps prevent biased practices like p-hacking and HARKing. Data sharing and providing access to code and materials let other researchers reproduce results and reuse data for new questions. When preregistration and sharing are part of the practice, transparency and reproducibility are promoted across the research cycle, which is the heart of open science.

The idea of keeping data private, discouraging collaboration, or focusing only on where you publish doesn’t capture that openness and collaborative spirit, which is why those descriptions don’t fit open science as well.