Meta-Science and Open Science for Ecology: The Revolution We Need

Ecological research is crucial to solving both local and global issues. For this to be successful and timely, the relevant information must be accurate and unbiased, and the flow of information (such as data or analytical approaches) among research groups improved. However, there are several barriers that, coupled with generally high heterogeneity of ecological systems, hinder the transition towards a more open research landscape. These barriers can broadly be divided into current research culture/practices (e.g. not sharing data, evaluation based on published papers) and technical barriers (e.g. lack of standards, infrastructures).

In my talk, I will showcase some general and some particular challenges that ecology faces in the open science transition. I will then highlight some solutions, based on mine and others work, to overcome these challenges, where I will particularly focus on the importance of open and FAIR data, computational reproducibility, and preregistration of (observational) studies. I will further discuss why ecology is uniquely positioned to benefit from open science and meta-research, given the diversity of study systems and biological heterogeneity present in these systems. I will emphasize the importance of meta-research in guiding the development adoption of open science solutions in ecology, hoping more researchers in ecology will engage in meta-research. The talk will conclude with a discussion on the best ways to get researchers on board with open science practices, and some ideas on how to achieve a better support system, research evaluation, and publishing.