Datahub

Reflections

On this page, the focus is on data-related standards and values rather than on the data itself. We have selected a set of interesting resources that help you understand and unravel the connections between population health data and themes such as reproducibility, research integrity, fairness, ethics, and equity.

Reproducibility

The Datahub acts as a local node for the Belgian Reproducibility Network, a cross-disciplinary, peer-led initiative dedicated to promoting rigorous and reproducible research practices in Belgium. Through this network, we were introduced to a replication study in art history that has been instrumental in shaping our understanding of reproducibility.

To engage in a meaningful debate about the pursuit of reproducibility in the domain of public health, we believe it is essential to approach this concept from diverse disciplinary perspectives. In a keynote speech for the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts entitled 'The Many Faces of Reproducibility', thinker-in-residence Sabina Leonelli provides a fresh and comprehensive overview. She illustrates how, in research discourse and practice, reproducibility is interpreted in different ways and serves a variety of epistemic functions. She also explains how the uncritical pursuit of reproducibility can be misleading and potentially damaging to scientific progress.

Research integrity and fairness

• The BRIDGE guidelines and mentorship initiative explore how rigour and fairness can be enacted in daily research practice in global health epidemiology

• A viewpoint published in Dutch by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts explores the links between research traditions, incentives, and practices across time and regions. We value the way it makes these links explicit.

• A set of two papers examines how ideas of success, integrity, and research culture influence scientific practice. It gives language to several questions and concerns that shape how we work within the Datahub.