Update 8. Create an Open Science Group.md

tabs/8. Create an Open Science Group.md

@@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ nav_order: 9
 
 # Chapter 8: Starting Open Science methodologies and initiation within your own network
 
-**Authors: Eduarda Centeno, Mona Zimmerman, **
+**Authors: Eduarda Centeno, Mona Zimmerman**
 **Reviewers:??? **
 
-In this chapter, we would like to take you on a journey and show you how our working group came about. Maybe this inspires you to kick-start your own working group and spread OS in your department. \n
+In this chapter, we would like to take you on a journey and show you how our working group came about. Maybe this inspires you to kick-start your own working group and spread OS in your department.
 
 When we first started to set up our group, there was just one idea in our minds: How can we make our department more *open sciency*? 
 
@@ -21,23 +21,28 @@ Now looking back at our process, a few things came our way that greatly helped u
 
 We have curated these experiences here as a step-by-step plan, a blueprint for starting an OS working group in your own department:  
 
- **Getting the Green Light:** An important first step in the journey was to obtain the green light from the seniors to even form a working group. Having the full support of the department head made us confident that change could happen. It also ensured that we felt like we were doing something valuable with our time that our supervisors support. With time we broadened this support by including supervisors in some of our projects and reporting back our progress, showing how the work is also valuable for them.
+## Getting the Green Light
+An important first step in the journey was to obtain the green light from the seniors to even form a working group. Having the full support of the department head made us confident that change could happen. It also ensured that we felt like we were doing something valuable with our time that our supervisors support. With time we broadened this support by including supervisors in some of our projects and reporting back our progress, showing how the work is also valuable for them.
 
-*Tip: If your department head is not convinced at first, try to build a case on why OS is important. For instance, politically OS has become a priority in the Netherlands. Also, finding as many people as possible in the department to join your group will help make a case. * 
+*Tip: If your department head is not convinced at first, try to build a case on why OS is important. For instance, politically OS has become a priority in the Netherlands. Also, finding as many people as possible in the department to join your group will help make a case.* 
 
-**Building a Diverse Squad:** But what is a working group without enthusiastic, diverse members? Very importantly, we tried right from the start to bring together a dream team representing all facets of the department for a well-rounded approach (students, PIs, techs, educators, etc). This ensured that every group of the department was on board and that the word of OS could be spread to all corners of the department. Especially for the Neurosciences, this is valuable, as it is such a diverse field ranging from molecular research to whole-brain network neuroscience. Importantly, this means that the OS practices that need to be implemented really depend on the subfield of neuroscience (see previous chapters). Strive to represent this diversity in your group and make use of every member’s expertise!
+## Building a Diverse Squad
+But what is a working group without enthusiastic, diverse members? Very importantly, we tried right from the start to bring together a dream team representing all facets of the department for a well-rounded approach (students, PIs, techs, educators, etc). This ensured that every group of the department was on board and that the word of OS could be spread to all corners of the department. Especially for the Neurosciences, this is valuable, as it is such a diverse field ranging from molecular research to whole-brain network neuroscience. Importantly, this means that the OS practices that need to be implemented really depend on the subfield of neuroscience (see previous chapters). Strive to represent this diversity in your group and make use of every member’s expertise!
 
 *Tip: Including members with different (cultural, educational) backgrounds, experience levels and perspectives greatly helped to get the most out of our ideas. It helped to make well-rounded content that is relevant for everyone in the department. Also, representing a diverse group surely made it easier to convince the last non-believers.*
 
-**Spotting the Interest:** Now let’s get started with the actual work. As mentioned above, at first we had many questions. Where to start? What is the most relevant OS topic that needs to be addressed? Which practices are already adopted or need to be introduced to the department? Inventorisation was our friend here. We created a simple but informative survey in Google Forms and sent it around the department. We included questions about the current adaptation of OS principles, the hurdles and reasons for adopting it and whether people generally feel open and ready to follow OS. We also asked about what resources and events people would find useful to get started. In general, this survey majorly helped to get our working group started. We knew at what level to begin and got ideas about what is needed to become more *open sciency*. 
+## Spotting the Interest
+Now let’s get started with the actual work. As mentioned above, at first we had many questions. Where to start? What is the most relevant OS topic that needs to be addressed? Which practices are already adopted or need to be introduced to the department? Inventorisation was our friend here. We created a simple but informative survey in Google Forms and sent it around the department. We included questions about the current adaptation of OS principles, the hurdles and reasons for adopting it and whether people generally feel open and ready to follow OS. We also asked about what resources and events people would find useful to get started. In general, this survey majorly helped to get our working group started. We knew at what level to begin and got ideas about what is needed to become more *open sciency*. 
 
 *Tip: Of course other ways to get an overview are also useful. For example, we made an overview of which practices each team is already implementing in their day-to-day work. This was not only useful for developing workshops, but it was also fun to share with the department as a motivation and inspiration for the other groups.*
 
-**Monthly Brainstorm Sessions:** Cue the monthly meet-ups! We brainstormed, laughed a lot, and cooked up a vision and plan for our OS adventure. Meeting regularly every month was really necessary to organize and orchestrate our next steps. 
+## Monthly Brainstorm Sessions
+Cue the monthly meet-ups! We brainstormed, laughed a lot, and cooked up a vision and plan for our OS adventure. Meeting regularly every month was really necessary to organize and orchestrate our next steps. 
 
 * Tip: Meeting every 4 weeks was the right amount of time to cross things off our to-do lists and to not procrastinate our efforts too much. But of course, it takes some time to figure out the right rhythm. Maybe one or two weeks between meetings suits your group better if you are a smaller group for example. *
 
-**Team Trio:** As our group was quite large from the get-go, we quickly noticed that delegating tasks was kind of messy. As a solution, we split into three squads for maximum impact:
+## Team Trio
+As our group was quite large from the get-go, we quickly noticed that delegating tasks was kind of messy. As a solution, we split into three squads for maximum impact:
 
 *Communication Crew:* The communication crew is responsible for events, seminars, and creating a cool bi-monthly newsletter (Find them here[https://osf.io/v9fru/]). We found it very important to continuously show our department as a whole what we are currently doing and what we have achieved so far. Especially since we are running this working group voluntarily, next to our ‘real’ work, our PIs found it important to know what we are spending our time with and whether it is fruitful. Also, the newsletter allowed us to give timely, neuroscience-specific advice and tips in an accessible manner. 
 
@@ -46,9 +51,11 @@ We have curated these experiences here as a step-by-step plan, a blueprint for s
 *Grant Gang:* Money, Money, Money - such a useful thing to have in science. In our team, we established a grant gang to scour the land for funds. We thought money would be useful to be able for instance to properly organize department workshops and hackathons, and to set up an OS infrastructure for data and data sharing in our department (e.g., paying for server storage to store the huge MRI NIfTI images of all those brains). Importantly, obtaining money through grants, as a side effect, helped us gain independence and status in the department. Also, this money ensures that we can continue with our work in the coming years (i.e. sustainability).
 
 
-**Searching for important collaborations:** Even though the working group focuses on our specific department, a very important step for the development and effectiveness of the group was to search for close collaborators who could help us in this journey. Such collaborations can strengthen your case and show that your work is grounded in a bigger movement. Below you can find all the collaborations we established and movements we joined. There is a lot for OS in general that also works with or for neurosciences (for example see chapters XX, brein in beeld). However, in the future, we would love to see the movement growing specifically for neurosciences…Will your young working group help with this initiative??
+## Searching for important collaborations
+Even though the working group focuses on our specific department, a very important step for the development and effectiveness of the group was to search for close collaborators who could help us in this journey. Such collaborations can strengthen your case and show that your work is grounded in a bigger movement. Below you can find all the collaborations we established and movements we joined. There is a lot for OS in general that also works with or for neurosciences (for example see chapters XX, brein in beeld). However, in the future, we would love to see the movement growing specifically for neurosciences…Will your young working group help with this initiative??
 
-**A continuous assessment and communication with our peers:** The last but very important step of our plan is about continuous learning and improvement. Our goal is to transform how we are working as scientists - everything we do in the working group builds towards this goal. Shortly after establishing the working group, we set out to get a snapshot of the current progress in OS practices in our department. We create yearly evaluation surveys in which we ask about the enthusiasm and reality of adopting OS. In these anonymous surveys, we ask people’s opinions about our workshops, newsletters and ambitions in general. Then, we use this information not only to create new content but also to improve our own work and set the focus for the coming year. Apart from this anonymous evaluation, it is even more important to be in constant exchange with our peers outside of the group and the department's seniors. As they provide guidance and very valuable feedback, we can use them to further improve. 
+## A continuous assessment and communication with our peers
+The last but very important step of our plan is about continuous learning and improvement. Our goal is to transform how we are working as scientists - everything we do in the working group builds towards this goal. Shortly after establishing the working group, we set out to get a snapshot of the current progress in OS practices in our department. We create yearly evaluation surveys in which we ask about the enthusiasm and reality of adopting OS. In these anonymous surveys, we ask people’s opinions about our workshops, newsletters and ambitions in general. Then, we use this information not only to create new content but also to improve our own work and set the focus for the coming year. Apart from this anonymous evaluation, it is even more important to be in constant exchange with our peers outside of the group and the department's seniors. As they provide guidance and very valuable feedback, we can use them to further improve. 
 So don't fear the feedback!