Mission

The Center for Reproducible Science and Research Synthesis (CRS) works to advance scientific methods, practices, norms, and incentives that produce trustworthy and reproducible research. Building on this foundation of reproducible science, we develop approaches to systematically integrate reliable evidence across heterogeneous studies and research designs. The CRS provides methods, tools, and platforms for interdisciplinary collaboration, enabling researchers to assemble, assess, and integrate the increasingly specialized knowledge produced by individual research contributions.

One aspect of reproducibility refers to a quality of a scientific study. It describes the extent to which the design, implementation, analysis and reporting of a study enable a third party to repeat a study and assess its findings.

Another aspect of reproducibility refers to a property of a scientific finding. It then describes the extent to which a finding agrees with findings of other studies that address the same research question.

Reproducible Science describes a broad vision of the scientific enterprise. In this vision, scientific institutions, norms and incentives are structured to produce reproducible studies and findings.

By Research Synthesis we mean the systematic collection, assessment and integration of scientific evidence from heterogeneous data, methods and research designs across disciplines. Its goal is to help the scientific community better integrate existing knowledge to inform research priorities and evidence-based decision making.

Recognizing that effective research synthesis depends on reproducible studies and findings, the CRS adopts a dual mission: first, to advance methods and practices that enhance the reproducibility of individual studies and their findings; and second, to develop approaches for systematically synthesizing evidence across studies with demonstrated reproducibility. These two objectives are fundamentally interconnected‌‌ — reliable synthesis requires a foundation of trustworthy research, while synthesis methods can reveal patterns of reproducibility across the literature.

The CRS team strives to create a group culture that is collaborative and supportive, inclusive, open, ethical and rigorous, and free of discrimination and harassment.  

The group has established the following guidance on how it works: https://crsuzh.pages.uzh.ch/how-we-work/