Improving Experimental Rigor and Enhancing Data Reproducibility in Neuroscience

The topics of scientific rigor and data reproducibility have been increasingly covered in the scientific and mainstream media, and are being addressed by publishers, professional organizations, and funding agencies, including NIH. This webinar — the first in a series titled Promoting Awareness and Knowledge to Enhance Scientific Rigor in Neuroscience — will address topics of scientific rigor as they pertain to pre-clinical neuroscience research.

• A better understanding of the issues surrounding scientific rigor and the lack of data reproducibility in basic neuroscience research
• Example best practices for designing pre-clinical experiments and planning for data collection
• An overview of the new grant sections required by the NIH to address issues of experimental rigor and data reproducibility

This training module is supported by Grant Number 1R25DA041326-01 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The original contents of this module are solely the responsibility of SfN and do not necessarily reflect the official views of NIDA.

Speakers

Oswald Steward, PhD

Oswald Steward is founding director of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center for Spinal Cord Injury at the University of California, Irvine. He is Reeve-Irvine Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology and holds additional joint appointments in the departments of neurobiology and behavior and neurosurgery. His research focuses on how neurons create and maintain their connections, how synapses are modified by experience and injury, and the role of genes in neuronal regeneration, growth, and function. He received his PhD in psychobiology/neuroscience from the University of California, Irvine.

Katherine Button, PhD

Katherine Button is an associate professor at the University of Bath, UK. Her main research interests lie in mechanisms underlying anxiety and depression and their treatment, but she has a side interest in research rigour and reproducibility. She received her undergraduate degree in neuroscience from Cambridge University and her PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Bristol, where she also held two post-doctoral fellowships before moving to her current role at the University of Bath.