Abstract
A Funder-Led Intervention to Increase the Sharing of Data, Code, Protocols, and Key Laboratory Materials
Robert Thibault,1,2 Dana E. Cobb-Lewis,1,2 Matt Lewis,1,2 Devin Snyder,1,2 Cornelis Blauwendraat,1,2 Sonya Dumanis1,2
Objective
We examined whether a funder-led open science policy and compliance workflow could increase the deposition and unambiguous identification of research data, code, protocols, and key laboratory materials (eg, cell lines, antibodies).
Design
A cross-sectional study was conducted on articles supported by the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) Collaborative Research Network (CRN) and published between January 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025 (N = 102). The study was exploratory, and thus was not registered, and does not present inferential statistics. ASAP has a thorough Open Science Policy1 and Compliance Workflow,2 which require grantees to send manuscript drafts to ASAP staff, post preprints, deposit research outputs, and unambiguously identify research inputs. The workflow is managed by an ASAP staff member who integrates automated and manual assessments to provide a grantee with systematic feedback outlining the actions required to align their manuscript draft with the ASAP Open Science Policy.
Results
Between the version of a manuscript first shared with ASAP staff and the associated final publication, there were substantial increases in the deposition of newly generated datasets (21% for the first version to 88% for the published version), unambiguous identification of reused datasets (72% to 86%), deposition of newly generated code (15% to 72%), unambiguous identification of software used (35% to 79%), registration of newly generated key lab materials (22% to 78%), unambiguous identification of key lab materials used (44% to 87%), and deposition of newly generated protocols and unambiguous identification of existing protocols (35% to 81%; data on protocols was collapsed) (Table 25-0892). Of the included publications, 98% (100 of 102) had an associated preprint. Preprints were posted a median (IQR) of 4 (−7 to 50) days before submission to the journal in which they were eventually published and 236 (150-328) days before they were published in a journal. To facilitate this workflow, grantees share each manuscript alongside a Key Resource Table that lists persistent identifiers for the associated datasets, code, software, protocols, and key lab materials. Collating these Key Resource Tables provides a living and near-comprehensive log of all the inputs and outputs from ASAP CRN–funded research.
Conclusions
A funder-led intervention to monitor and support a robust open science policy can foster the posting of preprints and the sharing of data, code, protocols, and key lab materials.
References
1. Thibault R. ASAP Open Science Policy Handbook. Zenodo. 2024. doi:10.5281/zenodo.13769766
2. Cobb-Lewis DE, Snyder D, Dumanis S, et al. Investing in open science: key considerations for funders. bioRxiv. 2024:12.09.627554. doi:10.1101/2024.12.09.627554
1Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP), Chevy Chase, MD, US, openscience@parkinsonsroadmap.org; 2Coalition for Aligning Science (CAS), Chevy Chase, MD, US.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures
All authors are employees or contractors of CAS, the managing organization for ASAP.
Funding/Support
The authors conducted this research as part of their employment or contract with CAS. No additional funding was sought or acquired to conduct this research.
Acknowledgment
We thank the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research for their partnership in implementing the ASAP research initiative and for their assistance with the Open Science Compliance Workflow. We thank DataSeer for their active part in the development and conduct of the ASAP Open Science Compliance Workflow.
Additional Information
The authors’ ORCIDs are as follows: Robert Thibault, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6561-3962; Dana E. Cobb-Lewis, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4104-0311; Matt Lewis, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9091-5516; Devin Snyder, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8528-7538; Cornelis Blauwendraat, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9358-8111; Sonya Dumanis, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3345-9497. ChatGPT-4o (OpenAI) was used between February 10, 2025, and June 10, 2025, to help write the R Markdown script used to analyze the data. Robert Thibault takes responsibility for the integrity of the content generated. Data, codebooks, code, results, and instructions for how to reproduce our results are available on GitHub at https://github.com/robert-thibault/peer-review-congress-abstract and have been assigned a persistent identifier via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15832432. The ASAP Open Science Policy is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13769765. A preprint detailing the ASAP Open Science Compliance Workflow is available at https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.09.627554.