Volume 1396, Issue 1 p. 5-18
REVIEW

Progress toward openness, transparency, and reproducibility in cognitive neuroscience

Rick O. Gilmore

Corresponding Author

Rick O. Gilmore

Department of Psychology, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

Address for correspondence: Rick O. Gilmore, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
Michele T. Diaz

Michele T. Diaz

Department of Psychology, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

Social, Life, & Engineering Sciences Imaging Center, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

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Brad A. Wyble

Brad A. Wyble

Department of Psychology, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

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Tal Yarkoni

Tal Yarkoni

University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

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First published: 02 May 2017
Citations: 60

Abstract

Accumulating evidence suggests that many findings in psychological science and cognitive neuroscience may prove difficult to reproduce; statistical power in brain imaging studies is low and has not improved recently; software errors in analysis tools are common and can go undetected for many years; and, a few large-scale studies notwithstanding, open sharing of data, code, and materials remain the rare exception. At the same time, there is a renewed focus on reproducibility, transparency, and openness as essential core values in cognitive neuroscience. The emergence and rapid growth of data archives, meta-analytic tools, software pipelines, and research groups devoted to improved methodology reflect this new sensibility. We review evidence that the field has begun to embrace new open research practices and illustrate how these can begin to address problems of reproducibility, statistical power, and transparency in ways that will ultimately accelerate discovery.