In order to increase the replicability of scientific work, the scientific community has called for practices designed to increase the transparency of research (McNutt, 2014; Nosek et al., 2015). The validity of a scientific claim depends not on the reputation of those making the claim, the venue in which the claim is made, or the novelty of the result, but rather on the empirical evidence provided by the underlying data and methods. Proper evaluation of the merits of scientific findings requires availability of the methods, materials, and data and the reasoned argument that serve as the basis for the published conclusions (Claerbout and Karrenbach 1992; Donoho et al 2009; Stodden et al 2013; Borwein et al 2013; Munafò et al, 2017). Wide and growing support for these principles (see, for example, signatories to Declaration on Research Assessment, DORA, https://sfdora.org/, and the Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines https://cos.io/our-services/top-guidelines/) must be coupled with guidelines to increase open sharing of data and research materials, use of reporting guidelines, preregistration, and replication. We propose that, going forward, authors of all scientific articles disclose the availability and location of all research items, including data, materials, and code, related to their published articles in what we will refer to as a TOP Statement.
The Association for Psychological Science (APS,
http://www.psychologicalscience.org
) is the leading international organization devoted solely to scientific psychology. Its mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in research, application, and improvement of human welfare. APS has been a significant force in unifying and strengthening the science of psychology.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.