Educating for Open and Reproducible Research in the Geosciences: Lessons from an MSc program

Abstract. Reproducibility and replicability of scientific research are challenges for today’s data-driven (geospatial) research. While several initiatives aim to improve published research’s reproducibility, comparatively little attention has been paid to ensuring that tomorrow’s researchers learn about the importance of reproducibility and develop the skillset and practice to include it from the beginning in their work. To address this shortcoming, this paper presents a recent case study of a course at the MSc level, where students were given a range of published research studies to choose from with the aim to reproduce or replicate them, following best practices such as preregistration. The outcomes of the course are encouraging and suggest a wider adoption of such approaches in higher education. This paper aims to provide all relevant information to enable lecturers to experiment with this type of course.