Announcing the special August joint meeting of the WA Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia and the Australasian Region of the International Biometric Society.

Date: Tuesday, 13 August 2024.
Time: 6:00PM
Location: Room 501.117, Curtin University.
Dinner: The Karalee On Preston, 25 Preston St, Como.

Please RSVP for dinner by contacting Mario D'Antuono (mario24freo@gmail.com, 0480 123 071) by 12noon, Monday, 12 August 2024.

Presentation

An In-depth Analysis of the Openness and Computational Reproducibility of Plant Pathology Journal Articles

Professor Adam Sparks, Analytics for the Australian Grain Industry (AAGI), Curtin University.

Openly sharing research data and code for analysis and other scientific software has been frequently discussed as an essential practice in scientific research to allow proper evaluation of the claims. Previous SSA events have highlighted this issue, but to my knowledge none have presented an analysis of the state of reproducibility as found in the literature. As scientific claims can ordinarily only be evaluated by the description of the protocols, materials, equipment and methods described in peer-reviewed articles and as these methods and data become more complex it becomes critical to share what is behind this text in the article. To freely and openly share protocols, data and computational code greatly enhances the impact of the research, yet in many areas of research this practice remains quite limited. To evaluate the state of openness and reproducibility in plant pathology, we selected 450 articles published from 2012 to 2021 across 21 journals from the of field plant pathology randomly and scored them for their openness and computational reproducibility. The scores were then analysed by fitting Bayesian logistic mixed models to evaluate the effects of year of publication, journal title and five-year impact factor on the openness and reproducibility of the articles’ content. Most of the articles examined did not follow protocols for open science and failed to share data or code that other researchers could easily access, use and assess. Additionally, we were unable to detect any effect from year, journal or impact factor on openness and reproducibility. However, examples currently exist in a range of options to draw from that can provide ideas for those that may be unfamiliar with where to start. As biometricians, we are perhaps among the best-equipped researchers to help drive this paradigm shift by making our analyses reproducible, first for ourselves and then by sharing them openly for others to see, use and evaluate making our science more open and reproducible.

About the Speaker

Adam has been part of many different organisations involved in agricultural research from academia in the US and Australia, an international NGO (IRRI) to the state government of Western Australia. His work has resulted in a country-wide crop monitoring system that incorporates ground-based observations with satellite data, a model describing how far chickpea Ascochyta blight pathogen spores are dispersed, and a new model that described what drives adaptation in plant pathogen populations as well as several open-source research software tools. His interests and expertise include modelling, plant pathology, epidemiology, agronomy, crop disease management, biometry and programming with a strong ethos of open science and reproducible research.

Refreshments and Dinner

Members, visitors, and guests are invited to mingle over wine and cheese from 5:30PM.

Following the meeting you are invited to dine with the speaker and fellow attendees at 7:30PM sharp at The Karalee On Preston, 25 Preston Street, Como.

NB: RSVP to Mario D'Antuono (mario24freo@gmail.com, 0480 123 071) by 12noon, Monday, 12 August 2024.

The evening will include a complimentary first drink and coffee/tea/cake dessert on behalf of the two societies.

Meeting directions

Room 501.117 is located on the ground floor of Building 501 (Education) on the Bentley campus of Curtin University. Entry to Building 501 is via sliding glass doors found at the midpoint of the northern and southern approaches to the building. Upon entering the building proceed to the western end of the main corridor. See MazeMap, Google Maps.

Parking is free of charge in Yellow and Green bays after 4:30PM. A convenient place to park is Car Park PI2 accessible via Townsing Drive.

For further information please contact the WA Branch Secretary (ssa.wa.secretary@gmail.com).