Matt Parkes

(Also, the SAP’s written in Quarto and rendered in HTML so it’s all purdy)

C’mon folks, join in. It does feel scary, but it’s the right thing to do, and it feels good when you have.

Posted my first SAP online a couple of weeks ago, to go with the protocol (already online), code to follow in time when written. Do it!

We're thrilled to announce the Ctrl-Z Award, a US$2,500 prize for researchers “who discover substantial errors in their published work and take meaningful steps to correct the scientific record."
Covered by @nature.com today; read more here: centerforscientificintegrity.org/2026/03/10/a...

The image is an infographic titled "Open science creates economic value through reuse at scale," by PLOS. It highlights four benefits of reuse: prevents duplication of effort, accelerates research processes, compounds benefits through network effects, and enables reuse across sectors. The left side features a flowchart illustrating reuse from a single research output. On the right, a text box emphasizes that open science can enhance productivity and strengthen long-term performance when done correctly. A final note states, "Publishing is a vital part of the infrastructure that enables reuse at scale.

Open Science isn’t just a values choice. It’s an economic one.

We are sharing a new independent report by @technopolis-group.com on the economic benefits of #OpenScience and what drives value when research outputs are designed for reuse at scale: plos.io/4rdAxCY

A few headline takeaways:

🔸 Biggest gains come from reuse beyond publications (data, code, software, workflows)
🔸Efficiency gains reduce duplication
🔸Open infrastructures enable innovation and spillovers
🔸Costs and benefits are unevenly distributed across the research ecosystem

Scientific datasets are riddled with copy-paste errors Initial results from scanning through Excel files belonging to 600 published scientific papers.

If you want to take your mind off awful politics and look at awful science stuff instead, this is a good read: www.sciencedetective.org/scientific-d...

PDF Accessibility and Standards – Quarto Quarto 1.9 brings PDF accessibility and standards support, building on new tagging features in LaTeX and Typst.

If you are interested in PDF accessibility, there has been some big progress in Quarto.

Take a look at the latest blog post: quarto.org/docs/blog/po...

#Quarto #Accessibility #LaTeX #Typst

Looking forward (!) to reading funding applications with AI-generated sample size calculations done at the 11th hour.

…and I’m not sure whether outsourcing that bit to an entropy engine is something I’m comfortable with, even though its’s appealing to think that something could make it faster and easier.

But I’m sure using this at scale is going to homogenise SAPs into long boring documents with lots of words but no meaning.

SAPs take ages to write, and it’s hard, and it’s a pain, but they force you to use your brain meat and work out all the thorny difficult stuff…

Rrrrrright. I mean, the words are all there. But they make no sense.

Primary analysis that doesn’t use MI but assumes MAR (so what are you doing with the missing values?!).

Like I said, complicated feelings. I’m sure someone’s going to have examples of where it works and where it doesn’t.

Having complicated feelings about this one…

We have three exciting opportunities for you to join us for a fully-funded 4-year #PhD project here in #Manchester starting in October 2026

Find full details of all the projects on our website: www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk/phd-student-...

Applications close 3rd April 2026

We are very excited to share the full programme for the London Open Science & Scholarship Festival 2026 and announce that bookings are officially open! ✨

Find all the details on the Open@UCL blog 👉 buff.ly/S7yECkO

Are supplementary materials the new file drawer? - Theory and Society Supplementary materials have become a central feature of the contemporary online publishing system, yet they remain largely overlooked by metascience research. I argue that supplementary materials sho...

“File drawer 2.0”

“[Supplementary] files offer optimal settings for spinning research outcomes by sorting information between the main document and supplementary files to fit one’s narrative, making information technically available but effectively invisibilised.”

By @paulbertin.bsky.social

@glenmartin.bsky.social is giving an online seminar:

"Missing Data: The Missing Component in Guidance for Developing, Validating and Implementing Prediction Models"

📅 Date: Tuesday 10th March 2026
🕐 Time: 1–2pm GMT
📍 Location: Online

🔗 Register here to receive the Teams link: lnkd.in/ejk7EFzC

Despite increasing use of observational data in public health, researchers are still hesitant to use strong causal language (for fear of overpromising).

New paper and comment in @bmj.com sets out new guidance on appropriate use/misuse of causal language

www.bmj.com/content/392/...

Screenshot of both sides of the printable version of the cheatsheet

Screenshot of the web version of the recipes cheatsheet

#tidymodels now has its very first cheatsheet! "Preprocessing data with {recipes}" is now available in Web and PDF versions here: rstudio.github.io/cheatsheets/... #rstats #posit #rstudio

‘Unbelievably dangerous’: experts sound alarm after ChatGPT Health fails to recognise medical emergencies Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases

Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Developing Practical Method Based Guidance for Trial Statisticians for the Design and Analysis of SMART trials at Imperial College London on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Developing Practical Method Based Guidance for Trial Statisticians for the Design and Analysis of SMART trials at Imperial College London, listed on FindAPhD.com

A great opportunity for a PhD studentship in Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomised Trials (SMARTs) at Imperial's CTU with @vcornelius.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Given the recent spicy #rstats threads, an important reminder:

There's no single right way to code

If it works for you, that's all that matters really

Be good to your fellow coders

Preach! Literally just taught this point to my class last week.

This recent RCT of an "AI stethoscope" claims the technology "shows promise" for diagnosing cardiovascular conditions.

It does not.

It is a textbook example of the risks of conducting unprincipled 'per protocol analyses'. Once again, peer review at a major medical journal has failed.

🧵 1/

🚨 Don't miss this important MHRA webinar on 12 March 2026 discussing the implementation of the new clinical trials regulations.

🔗 Reserve your place here: bit.ly/3Mq9h5P

#ClinicalTrials #UKCTUNetwork #MHRA

I recently discovered something that has markedly improved my experience of daily life: if you Google something and add “-ai” after the search term, it gives you search results without the AI overview

Archiving research data Better Code, Better Science: Chapter 7, Part 11

Archiving research data russpoldrack.substack.com/p/archiving-... - the latest in my Better Code, Better Science series

Don't miss the chance to submit an abstract to the IEA European Congress of Epidemiology 2026 / 70th Annual Conference of the Society for Social Medicine & Population Health!

Deadline: 02 Mar 2026 at 23:59 GMT
Submission website: tinyurl.com/ssmeuroepi2026
Location: London, UK
Dates: 09-11 Sep 2026

OpenSAFELY news: you can apply to do non-COVID research, from today! | Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science We are delighted to announce that - from today - you can submit applications to the OpenSAFELY service for non-COVID-19 studies.

OpenSAFELY is open from today! Huge thanks to all who supported this vast collaboration: whole population GP data; in a productive platform; innovative privacy protections; unprecedented support from professions, privacy campaigners; &c

Now it's over to users!

www.bennett.ox.ac.uk/blog/2026/02...

This is excellent news and a huge deal!

(Here's my explainer on OpenSafely and why it is incredibly cool.)
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/how-to-use...

🚨 New blog post - Simplifying the path to tidy variable names with nice labels

the-kids-biostats.github.io/posts/2026-0...

Little by little we're trying to remove friction from OUR regular tasks/processes. We hope others might benefit from this along the way.