Celebrating 5 years with The Turing Way

Celebrating 5 years with The Turing Way

Workshop at Collaborations Workshop 2024

Facilitator(s): Kirstie Whitaker, Anne Lee Steele, Emma Karoune, Alexandra Araujo Alvarez (all The Alan Turing Institute)

Abstract: In 2019, at the Collaborations Workshop in Loughborough, The Turing Way (https://the-turing-way.netlify.app/index.html) was launched as a guide to reproducibility, providing tools, methods, and practices to address the reproducibility crisis in science. When we received a second wave of funding from The Alan Turing Institute we reflected further on what skills are required to maximise efficiency, reusability and openness in data intensive science. The Turing Way added guides for project design, ethics, communication and collaboration in 2020. What began as an open-source project building a handbook for data science, has blossomed into a dynamic, global collaborative community.

With 450+ co-authors who have shaped its narrative so far, The Turing Way has unfolded into a multi-guide book featuring 300+ chapters. In this session we will highlight three chapters in line with the themes of Collaborations Workshop 2024: 

• Code Testing (https://the-turing-way.netlify.app/reproducible-research/testing): We will revisit one of the first chapters we published with a particular focus on making sure that there is a human-in-the-loop when using AI tools for software engineering. Imagine a world where the same large language model writes the code and the tests, marking its own homework with no critical oversight!
  • Slides in this repository
• The Environmental Impact of Digital Research (https://the-turing-way.netlify.app/ethical-research/activism/activism-env-impact.html): We will highlight how The Turing Way has inspired and joined forces with other communities including Pangeo (https://pangeo.io) and the Environmental Data Science Book (https://edsbook.org/welcome.html) to contextualise open research practices for environmental data scientists, as well as considering and minimising the environmental impacts of data science. 
  • Slides: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11084013
• Running inclusive events for research incorporating patient and public involvement and engagement (https://github.com/the-turing-way/the-turing-way/pull/3550). We will aim for a 5th birthday live merge of a recent chapter written in collaboration with the AI for Multiple Long Term Conditions Research Support Facility (https://www.turing.ac.uk/research/research-projects/ai-multiple-long-term-conditions-research-support-facility) and The Turing Way Accessibility working group as we continue to break down the barrier between “citizen” and “scientist”. 
  • Slides: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11097029 

After these lightning talks we will have small discussion groups focused on what we have achieved in the last 5 years and what we predict will change in the next 5 years. At the end of the session we will sing happy birthday to our community and provide cake for anyone who is attending in person.

Audience: There are no prerequisites for joining this session. In fact, welcoming questions from people who are not part of the existing Turing Way community is one of our primary aims. We will use slido for questions and polls, and miro and post it notes for collaboration online and in person respectively. We hope that some of the existing community members and the “older” reproducibility and open science experts will join us for a slice of in-person or virtual cake and to reminisce on how far we have come (and how far we have to go).

Useful links

• 🔖Bookmark the start page: https://the-turing-way.start.page
• 📚 Read the guides: https://book.the-turing-way.org 
• 📝 Contribute on GitHub: https://github.com/the-turing-way/the-turing-way  
• 💌 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://buttondown.email/turingway
• 👋 Chat with us on slack: https://tinyurl.com/jointuringwayslack
• ☕ Join a collaboration cafe: https://annuel2.framapad.org/p/ttw-collaboration-cafe
• Next one: 15 May 2024, 15:00-17:00 BST / 14:00-16:00 UTC
• 🙋 Join an onboarding call: https://annuel2.framapad.org/p/ttw-onboarding 
• 🎨 Use The Turing Way scriberia images (all CC-BY): https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.3332807

🗣️ Give a talk about The Turing Way: https://the-turing-way.netlify.app/community-handbook/presenting