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Over the past decade, the field of psychology has faced concerns about the credibility of its evidence base. Large-scale replication projects have shown that many influential findings do not replicate as expected, while reproducibility challenges have revealed that research findings can be difficult to recreate when data and analysis procedures are unavailable.

In response, the discipline has increasingly embraced : a set of practices aiming to ensure that scientific knowledge, where appropriate, is accessible, transparent, rigorous, reproducible, replicable, accumulative and inclusive, defined by Oxford University’s Sam Parsons et al’s as “”. Key practices include study and the sharing of , and , which enhance transparency and rigour and enable others to evaluate, verify and build upon research findings.

Yet there remains a disconnect. Although open research is increasingly shaping how psychological science is conducted, it is often absent from how psychology is taught. Students are expected to critically evaluate evidence and conduct independent research projects yet many are never taught the intricacies of how research is conducted. 

Consequently, students can develop misconceptions about what constitutes “good” science, believing that significant results matter more than rigorous methods or that all published research is equally robust. From introducing the reproducibility crisis to redesigning assessment, there are many opportunities to make these practices visible throughout the curriculum. The following five approaches provide a practical starting point.

1. Link the reproducibility crisis to open research

To understand the value of open research, students first need to identify the challenges it was designed to address. Introducing students to psychology’s reproducibility crisis can stimulate important discussions about publication bias, selective reporting and questionable research practices, helping them become more critical consumers of evidence. 

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However, these conversations should not end there. In my experience, teaching replication failures without teaching the reforms that followed can leave students feeling pessimistic about the discipline.

Open research should therefore be taught alongside the “crisis”. When students learn how practices such as preregistration, open materials, code and data emerged as solutions to research challenges, they begin to view psychology not as a broken discipline but as a self-correcting science that continually improves its methods. 

Educators need not develop these materials from scratch. provides a comprehensive collection of open educational resources, including lesson plans and classroom activities, that can be readily incorporated into teaching. My colleague Madeleine Pownall and I discuss further approaches in our book, .

2. Preregister student projects

One of the most impactful changes educators can make is encouraging students to preregister their research projects. This approach can be adopted in both research methods modules and the dissertation stage.

Preregistration involves documenting research questions, hypotheses, methods and planned analyses before data collection begins. It encourages students to justify methodological decisions, distinguish between confirmatory and exploratory analyses and develop a clear roadmap for their research. 

In addition to making research more transparent, this practice has various pedagogic benefits: it can reduce student anxiety by fostering better planning and shift attention to conducting a rigorous study, rather than achieving a particular outcome.

3. Teach data skills through open code and data

Students often learn statistics using neat, pre-prepared data sets that bear little resemblance to real, messy research data.

Open data sets and analysis code allow students to reproduce published findings and explore how analytical decisions influence outcomes. Alongside a more realistic understanding of research practice, students develop valuable skills in data management, documentation, problem-solving and digital literacy.

This approach can also make research methods teaching more engaging by allowing students to choose from a set of research questions with associated open data.

4. Open research as authentic assessment

Rather than teaching open research practices as abstract concepts, students can learn them directly through authentic assessments.

One approach is to adapt the format for research methods projects. Students first submit a “Stage 1” protocol containing the research background, aims/hypotheses, methods and analysis plan. Following formative feedback, they conduct the study and submit a “Stage 2” report that appends the Results and Discussion to the original protocol. This encourages students to focus on transparent reporting and methodological rigour as hallmarks of excellence, and can be done for quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods projects.

Assessment can also make use of open data. For example, students might reproduce the analyses from a published paper, compare their findings with the original results and evaluate any discrepancies. This provides valuable opportunities to discuss analytical decisions, reproducibility and the challenges of working with real-world data.

Another simple activity is to provide students with an intentionally poor study preregistration and ask them to identify ambiguities, missing information or opportunities for researcher flexibility. Students can then revise the registration to improve its transparency and reproducibility.

These assessments help students engage critically with open research practices, while developing skills directly relevant to contemporary research.

5. Highlight transferable skills

Open research is not only about improving research quality; it also prepares students for future careers.

Activities such as preregistration, transparent reporting, data management and collaborative research develop transferable skills including project-planning, critical thinking, communication, teamwork, digital literacy and ethical decision-making.

These are qualities increasingly sought by employers across sectors including healthcare, education, policy, government and industry. Making these connections explicit helps students recognise the value of these skills beyond academia.

Looking ahead

Open research provides a practical framework for teaching students how science really works. Starting from discussing the reproducibility crisis in the classroom to preregistering student projects and using open data, there are many ways educators can begin integrating open research into their existing materials. Even small, iterative changes can help ensure that students graduate not only as critical consumers of psychological science but as contributors to its future.

Charlotte Pennington is senior lecturer at Aston University and senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

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