Community for Rigor

"Transparency is a fetish" In our new segment, #RigorTakes, Dr. Zac Parker discusses scientific transparency with C4R founder Konrad Kording, professor at University of Pennsylvania ( @kordinglab.bsky.social ) Agree, disagree, or somewhere in between?

We spent the last few weeks digging into our free online unit: Controls: Clarity Not Coincidence. Here are 3 ideas we hope researchers and students takeaway from the unit. What do you think is the most important consideration when designing controls?

What would change if your lab or classroom fully adopted C4R's free scientific rigor materials? We asked researchers. Their responses? Better, more rigorous, and higher quality science Improved collaboration Increase awareness Higher quality randomization methods What would change for you?

C4R, the Community for Rigor, creates free, practical learning resources for researchers and educators. Through our free online curriculum, we help people put scientific rigor into practice through lessons, activities, and ready-to-use online teaching materials. #AcademicSky

Did you avoid these common experimental control issues? 1. Insufficient negative controls - add targeted negative controls 2. Human bias hindering controls - apply a masking design 3. Uneven variable distribution - use randomization #AcademicSky

Repeated measures design is a method where measurements are taken from the same subject under different conditions or over time. "Recovery" time points, negative control groups, and targeted negative control groups are a few examples of how we can strengthen a repeated measures study.

What are different ways you can control a variable? We use a three category framework: Constrain Limiting the range Distribute Distributing the range across groups Test Making a comparison group or adjusting for effect All three help address a variable's potential influence on an experiment.

Controls can play different roles in your research design. In this Behind the Scenes clip, C4R Senior Curriculum Developer, Karen Word, walks us through Constrain, Distribute, Test, the framework used in our Controls unit. Explore our free Controls unit: c4r.io/units

Help shape the next C4R scientific rigor units by becoming a beta tester! Beta testers receive $100 for each curriculum unit they complete and review. Become a beta tester. Complete the 2-minute interest form by October 12,2026. link.c4r.io/beta-testing More details below.

What you’ll get: • $100 for every unit you complete and review • Early access to C4R curriculum units before they’re publicly released • A chance to help shape research instructional materials that will help you and the researchers around the world who want to do better science

Help shape the next C4R scientific rigor units by becoming a beta tester! Beta testers receive $100 for each curriculum unit they complete and review. Become a beta tester. Complete the 2-minute interest form by October 12,2026. link.c4r.io/beta-testing More details below.

What scientific rigor topic do you wish more researchers talked about? At C4R26, our annual conference dedicated to scientific rigor, we asked attendees to answer this question on The Rigor Wall. What would you add to The Rigor Wall?

How do you make rigorous research a part of everyday scientific training? At C4R26, Adopting C4R Materials at Your Institutions will open a discussion on how we can best integrate our materials into your research communities. Join the conversation: 📅 September 30 🕘️ 9:45 AM ET 📍 Philadelphia

What's your rigor take? Do you have a strong opinion on a scientific rigor topic? Are there practices, or assumptions that you think deserve more debate?

Are you interested in collaborating with C4R? NIH recently published a highlighted topic on “Enhancing Scientific Rigor, Transparency, and Replicability”. Ideas include: Incorporating rigor education into scientific conferences, workshops or training programs. please reach out: community@c4r.io.

At the C4R Innovation Showcase, we'll share some of our instructional materials and activities we've been developing. And we want your input. Come see what we're building and help shape what comes next. 📅 September 29 at 9:30 AM ET 📍 Philadelphia 🎟️ C4R26 is free with RSVP 🔗 c4r.io/conference

There's still time to register for C4R26! Keynote speaker Simine Vazire will explore what's psychology's reproducibility movement can teach us about building a research culture that rewards rigor, and transparency. 📅 September 28-30, 2026 📍 Philadelphia, PA 🎟️ Free with RSVP 🔗 buff.ly/0revg0B