Newsletter #6: Frühjahrssemester 24

Welcome

Dear members of the Department of Psychology

We hope that the sixth newsletter of the Open Science Initiative at the Department of Psychology finds you well! To be more inclusive, this newsletter is the first one written entirely in English, and we have also switched our website to English. We have also optimized the application process for the Open Science Prizes. With a simplified form and streamlined instructions, participation is now even easier.

In this issue, we take a deep dive into SWISSUbase, a platform designed for sharing and preserving Swiss research data and projects across scientific disciplines. In addition, we are incredibly happy to announce this years’ winners of our very own Open Science Prize 2024. Finally, we highlight the visit of and talk by the renowned open science advocate Prof. Dr. Felix Schönbrodt on March 5th, 2024 at the Department of Psychology!

As always, questions, suggestions, and contributions to this newsletter may sent to openscience@psychologie.uzh.ch – the next newsletter will appear at the beginning of HS24.

Best regards,
Your Open Science Initiative

Topics

Guest contribution by Sandrine Morel and Léïla Eisner

For the past couple of years, a movement toward more reproducible research has developed to become the new international standard. The open science movement has prompted funders, institutions, and journals to introduce new requirements, notably the sharing of data and other research materials, which is becoming the new norm. However, the increased openness of data raises concerns about the protection of personal data obtained from individuals who participate in research projects (such as data gathered through interviews, surveys, or other data collection methods). New legislations are therefore implemented to ensure personal data are protected. For instance, Switzerland recently introduced the new Federal act on data protection (nFADP), effective from September, 1, 2023. Consequently, a question arises: how can we navigate the conflicting demands of increased data sharing vs. heightened data protection?

Since December 2021, the Swiss online platform SWISSUbase (SUB) offers trusted multiple domain-specific repositories for sharing and accessing data. It is an online platform designed for sharing and preserving Swiss research data and projects across scientific disciplines.

SWISSUbase is a consortium progressively built among several partners – a partnership between multiple Swiss institutions who are dedicated to specific or more general communities. FORS is responsible for the social sciences repository (since Dec. 2021) and UZH for the language for the language repository of Switzerland LaRS (since Sep. 2022). They were joined by UNIL (Feb. 2023) and UNINE (Sep. 2023), both responsible for the general repository.

The fees paid by these partners, all publicly funded institutions, allow the community of researchers in Switzerland to use the SWISSUbase tool – for data deposit or data access – for free.

Researchers not only have free access to the platform but can also benefit from support and assistance throughout the entire data lifecycle. The platform’s support teams assist researchers in adhering to FAIR principles and data protection practices.
Finally, data shared on the Swiss tool can be found on different platforms outside Switzerland (e.g., CESSDA Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives). SWISSUBase complies with the international standards like DDI for social sciences and meta share for linguistics, and is internationally recognized as a trustworthy repository (awarded the core trust seal certification in 2023).

•    What and for whom is SWISSUBase?
SWISSUbase is designed for researchers affiliated with Swiss institutions and the broader research community working with Swiss research data across diverse scientific fields including social sciences, language sciences, and psychology. The long-term preservation is ensured by data curators and archiving experts in partner institutions who verify that the data can indeed be shared and reused.

• For data users: SWISSUbase provides a large online public catalogue to find data and projects (over 900 datasets and 12’000 research projects) within Switzerland, offering good quality data and rich metadata (controlled by experts).
• For data producers: Sharing research data and related materials has several advantages: it helps others to better understand what was done and enables building upon existing work, fostering collaborations (by making research and results more visible). Moreover, it increases publication citations since datasets are assigned a DOI.

•    How to use SWISSUBase?
SWISSUbase provides a multi-lingual interface (EN, FR, DE, and IT for metadata description). Once logged in with Switch EDU-ID, three tabs are available: Catalogue (to find/access data), My Studies (to deposit data), My download (to track accessed/reused data).

• for Finding and Accessing Data: Go to the catalogue and use the filters to narrow down the possibilities (over 12'000 projects, 900 datasets). Select the dataset, accept the user contract, describe your research project (if necessary), and access the data of the chosen project. Delete the data when the contract expires.
• for Data deposit: SWISSUBase offer various repositories –general and domain-specific– with specific metadata sections. All repositories include three blocks: Study, Datasets, and Files. When depositing data, choose between providing access with a Creative Commons license or opt for a closed contract with usage restrictions (academic research only, teaching, or specific permissions). An embargo option for data publication is also available.

More details can be found in the SUB user guide or through video demos by Project Leader Stefan Buerli here [starting at: 16:06] and by Project Manager Jennifer Dean here [starting at 56:12] or on the SWISSUbase YouTube channel.

What happens with the data stored on SWISSUBase?
Upon submission, a team of archiving experts verifies the conformity of the data before it is made available. They verify various aspects, such as ensuring the research context is clear, the metadata is complete, labels are clean, participant identities are protected, and file formats are readable, among other examples. The team of archiving experts are also in charge of ensuring the accessibility of data in terms of software readability: in case of new software version, they make sure the data will still be readable. The dissemination package allows for the data to be accessible at a European level through other international online catalogues.

Finally, Swiss research data is stored on Swiss servers (at Switch) compliant with the Schengen Data Protection Act (SDPA) & General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Access for data upload (deposit) or download (access) requires authentication with the Switch EDU-ID, ensuring affiliation with a Swiss higher education institution. Data encryption is scheduled by Switch for the end of 2024.

•    What limits are imposed on the size of the published data?
This question was specifically asked to Jennifer Dean, Project manager of SWISSUbase:
“There is no size limit on datasets per se, but the size limit for a data file (either an individual file or file collection, for example in .zip format) is ~976 GB/file. For any project entered in SWISSUbase, it is possible to upload multiple datasets. For any dataset, multiple files can be uploaded, either as individual files or as a file collection (for disciplines in which the structure of the files is important). So, each dataset can be made up of multiple data files (individual files or a file collection in a .zip folder), in which descriptive metadata can be added for each file if desired.”

•    What are the advantages of SWISSUbase in a nutshell?

• Secure storage on Swiss servers (Switch), compliant with SDPA & GDPR, with role-based access (via Switch EDU-ID).
• Publicly funded via partner institutions (FORS, UZH, UNIL, UNINE), providing free access to the Swiss scientific research community.
• Service & Expertise: Comprehensive support throughout the data lifecycle, from project initiation to data quality checks and long-term curation and preservation.

•    And if I only want to deposit or access data from a specific article?
On the SWISSUbase platform, the 'about us' section introduces the FORS replication service. This tool, developed by FORS « allows the Swiss social science research community to share the materials needed for the replication of analyses of journal article publications ». It is free of charge for both data producers and data users. Here too, the replication materials are reviewed by data experts and receive a DOI. Contrary to the SWISSUbase data deposit process, no restriction or closed contract are established, the data is immediately accessible for « the replication of analyses of journal article publications ». More information is available here.

•    Acknowledgements
All information from this Newsletter was gathered from various workshops and seminars organized by FORS on SWISSUbase, and from dedicated online resources. We also thank the SWISSUbase Project Manager Jennifer Dean and Marieke Heers (Head of Data archive services, FORS) for answering questions and for their availability.

Having presented the advantages of the data repository SWISSUbase (see above), the Open Science Initiative would like to offer all members of the Department of Psychology the opportunity to try out SWISSUbase for their own data with guidance from experts. In a cooperation with the Open Science Services of the University Library, we will connect interested researchers, organize a kickoff-meeting and conduct an evaluation of your user experience. So, if you plan to transfer your data to a repository (for example, as part of manuscript submission), within the next 3 months and would like to explore the advantages of using SWISSUbase for this purpose, receive help, and provide feedback on the process for potential improvements afterwards, please get in touch with Johannes Ullrich (j.ullrich[at]psychologie.uzh.ch) by March 18th 2024.

For the fifth time, the Open Science Initiative has awarded Open Science Prizes to members of the Department of Psychology who have implemented open science practices in an exemplary manner. We are grateful to psych alumni and the University Research Priority Program „Dynamics of Healthy Aging“ for their continued financial support!

In the category „Report from Introduction to Experimental Psychology (ExPra-Bericht)“, the Open Science Prize 2024, sponsored by psych alumni, goes to Lisa Degiorgi, Elin Weimer, and Debora Marucci from the course taught by Lea Bartsch and Philipp Musfeld (Professorship for Cognitive Psychology), for their report entitled „Der Hebb-Effekt in Listen mit Wiederholung an ungeraden Item-Positionen“. This Open Science Prize will be awarded in person at the ExPra-Congress on 27.05.2024, 11 am.

In the category „Master’s Thesis“, the Open Science Prize 2024, sponsored by psych alumni, goes to Noah Rischert for his thesis entitled „Second Thoughts Are Not Better Than Second Looks - Revisiting the Benefit of Refreshing on Long-Term Memory“, supervised by Lea Bartsch (Professorship for Cognitive Psychology).

In the category „Paper by Doctoral Student“, the Open Science Prize 2024, sponsored by the University Research Priority Program „Dynamics of Healthy Aging“, goes to two recipients who are equally deserving of the award: 1) Markus Tröndle (Professorship for Methods of Plasticity Research) for his paper entitled „Decomposing age effects in EEG alpha power“, and 2) Philipp Musfeld (Professorship for Cognitive Psychology) for his paper entitled „Testing Expectations and Retrieval Practice Modulate Repetition Learning of Visuospatial Arrays“.

You may apply for the Open Science Prize anytime. All applications submitted before January 31st, 2025, will be considered for the Open Science Prize 2025.

• Our beloved open science proponent and Managing Director of the LMU Open Science Center, Prof. Dr. Felix Schönbrodt, will visit us on Tuesday, March 5th, 2024 to give a talk entitled “How to build a strong scientific field: Lessons from other disciplines and an outline for structural changes” at the SEOP guest colloquium (16.15 – 17.45)
• There are very interesting talks upcoming as part of the ReproducibiliTea, jointly organized by the universities of Basel and Zurich – check out their detailed program: https://www.crs.uzh.ch/en/training/ReproducibiliTea.html

This newsletter is published once a semester – feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it: openscience@psychologie.uzh.ch

As this newsletter is only published once per semester, we are unable to inform you about events scheduled at (rather) short notice. Thus, we recommend subscribing to the mailing list of UZH’s Center for Reproducible Science to stay up to date on offers for further training and scientific exchange on open science at UZH, such as the ReproducibiliTea Journal Club.

Current members of the open science initiative

Prof. Dr. Johannes Ullrich (Head); Dr. Walter Bierbauer; Prof. Dr. Renato Frey; Dr. Martin Götz; M.Sc. Patrick Höhener; Dr. Sebastian Horn; Dr. André Kretzschmar; M.Sc. Pascal Küng; Prof. Dr. Nicolas Langer; Dr. Susan Mérillat; Dr. Robin Segerer; Prof. Dr. Carolin Strobl; Dr. Lisa Wagner; M.Sc. Jasmin Weber; Dr. Katharina Weitkamp