It’s estimated that only around 20% of published research can be reproduced by other research labs. Does that mean 80% of research is wrong? No, thankfully. What it means is that scientists are spending more of their time and resources trying to replicate research, which translates to as much as $28 billion each year in experimental trial-and-error findings.
Librarians have the skills and are positioned within their institutions to help guide their researchers. A growing number of academic and medical librarians are already stepping forward to provide assistance in reproducibility; here are five tips to help newcomers interested in taking up the fight.
TIP #3: Supply (and Promote) the Tools Your Researchers Need
Your collection is a wealth of resources for your users and their reproducibility efforts. When making acquisition decisions and developing resources, keep research reproducibility in mind. Resources that support clarity and transparency in their methods, data, and results will make your researchers more successful when reproducing published techniques and more mindful about ensuring clarity when publishing their own research. Here are some examples of tools that benefit reproducibility:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGASa0yI76o&t=2s
Promote these reproducibility-focused resources to your organization as a vital part of the research process. Many libraries put together all these resources in helpful LigGuides, check out, for example, the UC Berkely LibGuide and Univesity of Utah LigGuide.
Educate your patrons about the tools they have access to through your collection and encourage them to follow reproducibility best practices as developed by the National Institutes for Health and by publishers.
Download our Librarians & Reproducibility E-book to Learn More