From the Editors: Center for Open Science in the Guidelines for Transparency and Openness Promotion in Journal Policies and Practices
Co-Editors Gary A. Troia, PhD, CCC-SLP and Sarah E. Wallace, PhD, CCC-SLP
As we closed the 40th anniversary of Topics in Language Disorders in December 2020, the journal editors, the editorial board, and Wolters Kluwer were excited to announce adoption of open science policies and practices for TLD manuscript submissions involving data-based articles.
Given concerns among the general public and among scientists in many fields, including communication sciences and disorders, special education, and rehabilitation, regarding the transparency, reproducibility, and reputability of research findings (see Cook, Lloyd, Mellor, Nosek, & Therrien, 2018), we believe this move to adopt an open science framework will enhance the quality of the journal, the articles within its pages, and the scientific enterprise underpinning the reports of research we share with our readers. The principles of open science delineated by the Center for Open Science in the Guidelines for Transparency and Openness Promotion in Journal Policies and Practices can be found at https://osf.io/ud578/
TLD will adhere to the TOP Level 1 standards, meaning that, when authors submit data-based articles, they will be asked to disclose upon submission if they adhered to open science practices via the statements available in the Open Science Practices disclosure form, also described here:
- Data are/are not available to researchers for purposes of reproducing the results or replicating the procedures. Available data may be found at [include a persistent identifier such as Digital Object Identifier (DOI)].
- Research materials are/are not available to researchers for purposes of reproducing the results or replicating the procedures. Available research materials may be found at [include a persistent identifier such as Digital Object Identifier (DOI)].
- Study analytic methods (codes) are/are not available to researchers for purposes of reproducing the results or replicating the procedures. Available analytic codes may be found at [include a persistent identifier such as Digital Object Identifier (DOI)].
- The reported study is/is not preregistered with/without a statistical analysis plan in an independent, institutional registry. The preregistered study/analytic plan may be found at [include web address where the preregistration may be located by others].
Authors who indicate in the affirmative they have adhered to any of these open science practices will be eligible for the badge associated with each practice used and will be asked if they wish to have the badge or badges included with their published article. The badges can be viewed on the Center for Open Science website - https://www.cos.io/initiatives/badges.
Badge icons will be displayed at the beginning of the article in both the print and electronic versions along with the URL, DOI, or other permanent path for accessing the appropriate documentation for access, and badge icons will appear beside the article title in the table of contents. TLD evaluates affirmative disclosures before issuing a badge (issuance is predicated on authors' agreement to be awarded the badge) but does not do more than a cursory evaluation of the data, materials, or registration. Such a review might include confirming that the provided link leads to the data, materials, or registration on a public, open access repository, and that the linked materials are related to the report of research. Authors are accountable to the community for disclosure accuracy. We should note that authors are in no way required to adhere to these practices for the submission or publication of their work in TLD; we simply will ask authors of data-based articles to disclose if they did or did not do so.
