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  4. Open Practice Badges

What are Open Practice Badges?

Open Practice Badges are incentives for researchers to share data, materials, or to preregister their work. They are designed to be displayed on published articles to show that authors have engaged in these open practices.

Where do they come from?

The badges are an initiative of the Center for Open Science (CoS), a non-profit organisation with a mission to increase the openness, integrity and reproducibility of scientific research.

Why do we use them?

Cambridge University Press is committed to supporting Open Research, and open practices in research. Implementing Open Practice Badges has been shown to dramatically increase the rate of data sharing among researchers, which is one of our goals in our commitment to transparency and openness for journals.

What are the badges?

There are currently three Open Practice Badges:

Open practice badges horizontal

  • The Open Data Badge indicates that data necessary to reproduce the reported results is available in an open access repository, under an open licence, with an accompanying description of the data.
  • The Open Materials Badge indicates that any infrastructure, instruments or equipment related to the reported methodology is available in an open access repository and is described in sufficient detail to allow a researcher to reproduce the procedure.
  • The Pre-registration Badge indicates that the study design was publicly registered and time-stamped before the research took place, in a system such as the Open Science Framework or As Predicted.

Full details of the criteria for each badge can be found at the Open Science Framework.

How have we implemented them?

Our work on Open Practice Badges is driven by the needs of our communities, and we have been working closely with journal editorial teams to implement them where they are most appropriate.

When a journal implements badges, authors are asked in the submission system to complete a form about the badges they think their research qualifies for, detailing where the data, materials and/or pre-registered study design can be found. Journal editors are responsible for awarding the badges in line with the criteria. The badges are published in the article, together with a statement informing readers of the location of the related data, materials, and/or pre-registered study design.

Which journals have implemented them?

Journals that have implemented Open Practice Badges include:

Several other journals are working towards implementation – please contact us if you would like to see Open Practice Badges on your work!