Open science badges

Open Science Badges

Show how you're building credibility and encourage other neuroscientists to make their work transparent, open and reproducible



What are open science badges?

Stacked open science badges, courtesy of the Center for Open Science

Open Science Badges are part of an initiative from the Center for Open Science. Open Science Badges are awarded to researchers who openly share data, code, materials or preregister their work. They are also known as Transparency, Open science and Reproducibility (TOP) badges.


These incentives therefore encourage open science practice without restricting papers or posters that do not (or cannot) meet such aims (such as sharing of personally identifiable data or proprietary code). 


An increasing number of Journals including neuroscience journals offer open science badges and includes the Journal of Neuroendocrinology, Journal of Neurochemistry, Journal of Neuroscience Research and our Journal, Brain and Neuroscience Advances. 

What does each badge demonstrate?

The Preregistered Badge shows that the study was publicly registered and time-stamped before the research took place. This helps to reduce potential biases in the research, and is simple to do via a registry such as the Open Science Framework. For more information on preregistration, check out our toolkits.


The Open Data Badge shows that data necessary for an independent researcher to reproduce all of the reported results are available in a public, open-access repository.


The Open Materials Badge shows that the digital materials necessary for an independent researcher to reproduce all of the reported methodology are available in a public, open-access repository.

How can I use these badges at BNA2023?

For the BNA's 2023 Festival of Neuroscience, we are for the first time incorporating open science badges into the abstract submission process for the traditional poster format. By including the URL, DOI, or other permanent path for each practice, you can demonstrate how you are boosting credibility in your research.


Simply select when prompted which badge(s) you want to include in your abstract, and add the link to where our reviewers can access the information.


The design is modelled to fit with the open science badges introduced by the Center of Open Science, which can help signal aspects of open science in the work - such as data or materials being shared, or the work being preregistered. 


For preregistration posters, each of these will be provided with a preregistration poster badge.


How is the preregistered badge different to a preregistration poster badge? 

While both share similar principles, prereg posters supplement the preregistration process, offering a useful additional step that researchers can take prior to (or alongside) placing a research plan in a registry, allowing for additional feedback on the plan from researchers, additional opportunities for collaboration, and advice for the statistical analysis of the results.


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