PSY9311 ¨C Peer reviewing and open science best practices: case affective neuroscience

Course content

This module covers the peer review process and current best practices in psychology and neuroscience, such as preregistration, registered reports and other open science practices. We design and preregister a study, peer review recent papers and preregistrations, and practise critical reading of the literature. The syllabus is updated each year to reflect current debates and trends, e.g. the role of placebo effects in psychedelic treatments, or the number of samples needed to reliably correlate brain measures with behaviour.?

In lectures, professors and students will discuss strengths and flaws of approaches and papers broadly related to affective neuroscience, including issues related to researcher bias and statistical power.

In seminars, students will practise i) critical reading of the literature, ii) designing and preregistering a study, iii) writing peer reviews of papers and preregistrations, iv) responding to peer reviews and improving manuscripts.

Learning outcome

The students will learn to:

• Conduct and respond to formal peer reviews

• Design and preregister a study

• Choose and evaluate open science best practices such as preregistration, open code and data, registered reports, and evaluating effect sizes

• Evaluate the explanatory value and limitations of a broad range of cognitive neuroscience approaches, such as fMRI, psychopharmacology and behavioural tasks

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Overlapping courses

• 3 credits overlap with PSY4311 ¨C Peer reviewing and open science practices.

Teaching

5 lectures ¨¢ 2h, 5 seminars ¨¢ 2h.

Examination

Weekly ungraded assignments

Home exam in which a manuscript is critically reviewed (graded).

Previous exams

Examination support material

You should familiarize yourself with the rules that apply to the use of sources and citations. If you violate the rules, you may be suspected of cheating/attempted cheating.

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.