October’24 Fireside Chat 

Event Summary

On October 31, 2024, we successfully launched the first session of our monthly Fireside Chat series, designed to foster an open and informal environment for our community. This initiative encourages engaging discussions about emerging trends, innovations, and challenges at the intersection of data science, AI, and policymaking. The October session featured lively conversations, greatly enhanced by the involvement of our newly appointed area editors.

Featured Presentation

The inaugural Fireside Chat showcased Kiera McNeice, Research Data Manager at Cambridge University Press, who presented on “Supporting Research Transparency in Journals.”

Dr. McNeice emphasized the significance of transparency in published research and shared key principles and best practices to enhance research integrity. Among the innovative approaches discussed were:

• Registered Reports:
  Developed by the Center for Open Science, this publishing format rewards good research practices. Authors submit their study design and protocol for peer review before conducting research, aiming to reduce publication bias by evaluating substantial portions of the manuscript prior to data collection. This process ensures that articles are not rejected based solely on null results or deviations from predictions.

• Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI):
  ATI is a new tool designed to facilitate transparency in qualitative and mixed-methods research by providing a framework for researchers to annotate their findings. This initiative promotes reproducibility and supports a deeper understanding of the research process.

Engaging Discussions

The event featured an active Q&A session where participants engaged with Dr. McNeice, posing insightful questions and sharing ideas on how to foster open and transparent research practices for the Data & Policy journal. Feedback from attendees highlighted the importance of such discussions in building a more transparent research ecosystem that aligns with the evolving needs of data science and policy development.

We look forward to the next session in our Fireside Chat series, where we will continue to explore important topics in our field.