Oct 12, 2017  –  Oct 13, 2017  |  La Paz

Seminar and Workshop on Research Transparency + Reproducibility — Catalyst Event, La Paz, Bolivia

BITSS and La Salle University in Bolivia have partnered to develop and deliver a series of activities on research transparency that caters to the needs of the research community involved in conducting high-quality research in Bolivia. The proposed activities are a small yet significant step to i) generate awareness among users and contributors of the science research, and ii) to provide a platform to share tools and resources that assist in improving transparency in research, within the community of practitioners and academicians.

Background:

The La Salle University in Bolivia is a leading academic institution and hub for researchers in Bolivia conducting research on Economic and Financial Sciences, Legal Sciences, Sciences Education, Science and Technology, Human and Psycological Sciences, and many more. La Salle University in Bolivia currently works with an array of stakeholders ranging from Governments, NGO’s, and funding agencies, and has a commitment of accountability and transparency to the general public.

La Salle University in Bolivia recognizes the need for research transparency to enhance the rigor and quality of their research output, as this research provides the basis for public policy. This commitment includes providing resources to support researchers to use study registries to register their trials, generate better process documentation, prepare pre-analysis plans, use version control and data sharing platforms, and ensure that de-identified data and associated code is ready to be made public.

Activities: two activities will take place: an expository seminar and a hands-on workshop.

Seminar Objective:

  • Improve understanding of the importance of research transparency in order to motivate the need for transparency and replicability in social science research. In the interest of achieving wider reach, the audience will include institutions and associated stakeholders, practicing and/or commissioning research in Bolivia.

Workshop Objective:

  • Facilitate transparency in research. This workshop provides an opportunity for greater collaboration in using tools and systems that can increase transparency and integrity of research, such as version control and dynamic documents.

Target Audience for the Seminar:

  • Researchers – Assistant/Associate professors and professors affiliated with research institutions in La Salle University.
  • Students: Graduate or Senior Undergraduates
  • Research staff (research associates and managers) working with La Salle University projects.

Target Audience for the Workshop:

  • The workshop target audience will be a subset of the larger seminar audience. Ideally junior researchers and senior students. Participants will have significant experience with statistical programming packages such as R or Stata, though those who use other packages may benefit as well.

Schedule:

Day 1

Seminar: Auditorio I – 08:45AM-10:30AM

Workshop: Laboratorio I – 12:00PM-13:30PM.

  • Module 1: Pre-registration with the AEA registry and the Open Science Framework.

Day 2

Workshop: Laboratorio I – 09:00AM-12:15PM.

  • Module 2: Dynamic documents with R (using RMarkdown + brief references to Stata); and
  • Module 3: Version control with Git and GitHub.

Language:
Lectures and materials will be presented in Spanish.