# Our team ![Seven members of OPeRA, from left to right: Georgia Richards, Aidan Cashin, Elaine Toomey, Hopin Lee, Matthew Bagg, Ian Skinner, Matthew Jones][1] We are a group of early-mid career health and medical researchers, scientists, professionals, and practitioners, based in Australia, Ireland, and the UK. From left to right: [Georgia Richards][2], [Aidan Cashin][3], [Elaine Toomey][4], [Hopin Lee][5], [Matthew Bagg][6], [Ian Skinner][7], [Matthew Jones][8]. You can read about us individually [here][9]. ---------- # Our mission We are a grassroots network that works openly, transparently and collaboratively to generate knowledge and proactively advocate for open science to improve the evidence ecosystem. Our three pillars, include: 1. Knowledge creation 2. Proactive advocacy 3. Impact ---------- # 1: Knowledge creation Since we started OPeRA in 2018, we have worked collaboratively to conduct and published **14** evaluations, reviews, methods articles and blogs, as summarised below. Reference | Project | ---------|-------| [Lee et al. 2018][10] *PAIN* | Topical review on reproducible and replicable **pain research** | [Cashin et al. 2019][11] *BMJ EBM* | Cross-sectional evaluation of **pain journals** open science policies | [Richards et al. 2020][12] *BMJ EBM Spotlight* | Blog on the open science policies of **pain journals** | [Bradley et al. 2020][13] *JRSM* | Critical overview of biases in **medical research** | [Hansford et al. 2021][14] *Arthroscopy* | Cross-sectional evaluation of **sport science journals** open science policies | [Cashin et al. 2021][15] *BMJ EBM* | Methods article on the registration of **health and medical research** | [Lee et al. 2021][16] *JAMA* | Development of a **reporting guideline** for mediation analysis of randomized trials - the AGReMA statement | [Gardener et al. 2022][17] *JRSM Open* | Evaluation of **medical and health sciences journals** open science policies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic | [Hansford et al. 2022][18] *Sports Medicine Open* | Feasibility of an audit and feedback intervention to promote transparency and openness in **sport science research** | [Hansford et al. 2022][19] *Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy* | Editorial on the openness and transparency of **sport science research** and role of journals | [Norris et al. 2022][20] *Psychology & Health* | Delphi exercise of open science research priorities in **health psychology** | [Bradley et al. 2022][21] *BJGP* | Letter on the lessons learned from promoting Registered Reports for **health and medical journals** | [DeVito et al. 2022][22] *BMJ EBM* | Methods article on sharing study materials in **health and medical research** | [Parsons et al. 2022][23] *Nature human behaviour* | Contributions to the **glossary of open scholarship terms** | ---------- # 2: Advocacy We proactively speak and teach open science, as summarised below. Event | Location & dates | Presentation | ---------|-----------|-----------| SPRING | Sydney, Australia; *2019* | Presentation | ResBaz | Sydney, Australia; *10-12 Sep 2019* | Presentation by Matthew Bagg and Aidan Cashin, [Take Up TOP!][24] | Pint of Science | Oxford, *23 Oct 2019* | Georgia Richards was an invited panelist for the '[Clinical trial transparency - let's talk][25]' discussion for Open Access week | AIMOS 2019 | Melbourne, Australia; *7-8 Nov 2019* | Poster presentation by Aidan Cashin, [Take Up TOP!][26] | RROx launch | Oxford, UK; *Jan 2020* | Presentation by Georgia Richards on the work of OPeRA | Hackathon | Online, *27 Apr 2021* | Citizen science event led by Georgia Richards in collaboration with COS [to promote and educate journals of registered reports][27] | Workshop EBHC Summer School | *11 July 2022* | Georgia Richards led a workshop on Open Science Research Practices for students enrolled in the Evidence-Based Healthcare programmes (i.e. MSc & DPhil) at the Univeristy of Oxford Cochrane PaPaS: Trust, Integrity and the Future of Pain Evidence | London, UK' *7 Dec 2022* | Keynote presentation by Georgia Richards, [Opening up pain science][28] | CEBM Seminar Series: Major challenges in EBM, a history and philosophy | Oxford, UK; *25 Jan 2023* | Presentation by Georgia Richards, Opening the 'E' in EBM | ---------- # 3: Impact * Our methods have been replicated to examine the transparency and openness policies of sleep ([Spitschan et al. 2021)][29] and dental ([Raittio et al. 2022][30]) journals * The *Journal of Physiotherapy* and *PAIN* updated their openness and transparency policies following consultations with our team ---------- # Current projects Num | Project | Scope | Status | --|---------|-------|--------- 1 | Feasibility evaluation of interventions to change journal policies to mandate or encourage transparency and openness of sports science research | Sports science journals | Protocol development 2 | COS-led initiative to evaluate journal policies and advocate for open science practices | All fields | Contributing 3 | A randomised controlled trial that tests an intervention to change journal policies to mandate or encourage transparency and openness of pain research | Health research | Protocol development 4 | An audit of institutional policies that support open science practices in hiring, promotion, tenure and general conduct | All fields | Protocol development [1]: https://files.osf.io/v1/resources/h239s/providers/osfstorage/63e28ab83db09501ed1cefc1?mode=render [2]: https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/georgia-richards [3]: https://www.neura.edu.au/staff/aidan-cashin/ [4]: https://www.ul.ie/research/dr-elaine-toomey [5]: https://www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/team/hopin-lee [6]: https://www.neura.edu.au/staff/matthew-bagg/ [7]: https://science-health.csu.edu.au/schools/health-exercise-sports/staff/profiles/physiotherapy/ian-skinner [8]: https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/matthew-jones [9]: https://osf.io/h239s/wiki/Who%20are%20we%3F/ [10]: https://journals.lww.com/pain/Fulltext/2018/09000/Reproducible_and_replicable_pain_research__a.5.aspx [11]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2019-111296 [12]: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2020/02/11/shining-a-spotlight-on-the-policies-of-pain-journals/ [13]: https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076820956799 [14]: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arthro.2021.09.005 [15]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2021-111836 [16]: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2784353 [17]: https://doi.org/10.1177/20542704221132139 [18]: https://sportsmedicine-open.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40798-022-00496-x [19]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00167-022-06893-9 [20]: https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2022.2139830 [21]: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp22X721241 [22]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2022-111987 [23]: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01269-4 [24]: https://research.unsw.edu.au/resbaz-sydney [25]: https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/clinical-trial-transparency--lets-talk [26]: https://aimos.community/aimos2019 [27]: https://www.cos.io/blog/help-us-improve-health-research [28]: https://youtu.be/-KblmRKvC1E [29]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33748432/ [30]: https://doi.org/10.1111/eos.12908