Symposia
Research Methods and Statistics
Chantelle Roulston, PhD
Lab Coordinator
Stony Brook University
Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York
Akash Shroff, BS
Lab Coordinator
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY
Sharon Chen, B.S.
Research Support Specialist
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY
Jessica Schleider, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York
Key aims of the open science movement include improving methodological transparency (making science more ‘open’ among scientists) and facilitating science communication (making science ‘open’ to non-scientists). Community engagement is a powerful tool for promoting action, but there are few community-oriented initiatives that directly support scientists’ embracing open science practices. This talk will introduce one such initiative, The Social Media Research Network (SMRN). The SMRN is a virtual community designed to support scientists in three ways: 1) to facilitate sharing, documenting, and crowdsourcing of online, inclusive recruitment methods; 2) to provide guidance toward communicating science to the public; 3) to support researchers in increasing community outreach and resource provision, all via social media. Launched in June 2021, the SMRN now includes 114 research labs across 35 U.S. states and 3 countries. SMRN members were initially recruited through Twitter and professional listservs. The number of labs who joined the SMRN immediately after its launch demonstrates the demand for this kind of community-based open science resource. SMRN members communicate via listserv and Slack. Within the Slack Workspace, members can choose to join one or more channels (general, recruitment, community-outreach, and science-communication. The SMRN has provided several open-access resources for its members, including a Social Media Toolkit (publicly available on PsyArXiv), a free-of-charge workshop on participants recruitment methods via Instagram, and structured information on how to use Slack as a research communication tool. Overall, the SMRN may serve as a model for using a scientist-run virtual community to strengthen researchers’ engagement in myriad open science practices. The SMRN offers insight into how to facilitate openness of methods and science communication. By giving scientists tools to practice open science and a space to easily communicate and share resources, and by integrating goals of service into its mission (e.g., improving science accessibility to public audiences), the SMRN may benefit scientists and nonscientists alike.