About RT2 

The Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) will hold its next Research Transparency and Reproducibility Training (RT2) in Berkeley, CA on May 19 - 21, 2026. RT2 provides participants with an overview of tools and best practices for transparent and reproducible social science research. This year, we will highlight the credibility and reliability of findings in behavioral and social science research (BSSR), especially related to aging and health disparities (though training in this field is not required to participate). The curriculum will be developed and delivered by academic leaders in the open science movement as well as experts on aging and health disparities. The three-day training will include space for collaborative work and hands-on skill building. Participants are encouraged to bring their own research questions and ideas so they can seek support and feedback from instructors and other attendees. Learn more about previous RT2 events here.   

 Curriculum 

The RT2 curriculum will include modules on the following topics:

• Ethics and Mertonian norms for research transparency and reproducibility
• Scientific misconduct and researcher degrees of freedom
• Improved specification through study pre-registration and pre-analysis plans
• Computational reproducibility and approaches to replication
• Appropriate use of statistics and interpretation of statistical evidence
• Hands-on practice with version control using Git (GitHub or the Command Line)
• Dynamic documents with R and Stata
• Data management, data privacy, and de-identification for data sharing
• Using open science tools
• Applications to behavioral and social science research

Eligibility 

RT2 is designed for researchers in the social and health sciences, with particular emphasis on economics, political science, psychology, and public health. Participants are typically (i) current Masters and PhD students, (ii) postdocs, (iii) junior faculty, (iv) research staff, (v) librarians and data stewards, and (vi) journal editors, funders, and research managers curious about the implications of transparency and reproducibility for their work. The RT2 curriculum is most applicable to researchers who use quantitative or mixed methods. Applicants should have proficiency in R or Stata.    

Application Process 

Submit an application using the form below. The application includes questions regarding (i) your motivation for participating in RT2, (ii) how you expect your participation to contribute to scaling-up education and training on research transparency and reproducibility, and (iii) how participating in RT2 will help with your current research. 

Note: Having a specific project to work on is required, as there will be a session each day dedicated to participant presentations. You will be expected to give a 5-7 minute presentation and discuss the application of the tools and practices taught at RT2 to your real-world project.  

Applications should also include a Curriculum Vitae or Resume and any research materials that will give the BITSS team an idea of your work including, but not limited to: abstracts, slides, working papers, recorded presentations, etc. Letters of Reference are also accepted, though they are not required. Please submit these as attachments in the online application portal.    

Selection Process 

BITSS aims to select no more than 40 participants for RT2. As the number of applications for RT2 tends to exceed the number of available spaces, we will competitively select participants based on (i) the quality of application materials and expected impact and (ii) balance across disciplines, gender, and institutions. BITSS staff will lead the selection process with oversight from the BITSS Faculty Director.  

Funding 

Participants will need to pay for their own roundtrip travel to Berkeley, CA; 3-4 nights of accommodation; and meals outside of lunch each day (BITSS will provide lunch during the training each day).

BITSS has limited funding to offset travel and accommodation costs for the training. Please use the form to let us know how much funding you need in order to attend. Please reach out to Program Manager Jo Weech (jweech@berkeley.edu) if you require any additional accommodations to attend the training, for example including, but not limited to, support for childcare.

Application Timeline

We will consider applications until Sunday, February 8, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT.

Call for Speakers for the 2026 BITSS Annual Meeting

The  Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) will hold its 14th Annual Meeting on Thursday, April 16 at UC Berkeley! This event is in-person only.

Program

The BITSS Annual Meeting brings together actors from academia, scholarly publishing, and policy to share novel research and discuss efforts to improve the credibility of social science by advancing research transparency, reproducibility, rigor, and ethics. The program will feature presentations of meta-scientific work selected from this Call for Papers, as well as a keynote presentation. The Institute for Business and Social Impact (IBSI) of the UC Berkeley Haas school of Business and BITSS are co-hosting this year's conference.    

Call for Papers

We invite papers or long abstracts (500-1000 words) in all aspects of meta-science, including but not limited to work that assesses scientific practice, evaluates the credibility of bodies of social science literature, presents new tools or strategies to improve research transparency and reproducibility, or evaluates the effectiveness of existing tools. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Pre-registration and the use of pre-analysis plans;
• Disclosure and transparent reporting;
• Research ethics;
• Replicability and reproducibility;
• Peer review and changes in academic publishing;
• Methods for detecting and reducing publication bias or data mining;
• The intersection of openness and inclusion in science;
• Assessment of the validity or reproducibility of literature;
• Meta-analysis and evidence synthesis;
• Open policy analysis;
• Role of AI in research transparency;
• Other policy-relevant research.

Eligible projects include completed works, work in progress, and prospective work. All submissions are due by Sunday, January 18, 2026 (11:59 PM Pacific Time). Notifications of acceptance will be sent by February 5, 2026.  

Contact 

Reach out to Jo Weech (jweech@berkeley.edu) with any questions about this event.

Deadline to submit papers is Sunday, December 14, 2025 at 11:59 PM PST. PacDev 2026 will take place on Saturday, March 14, 2026. It will be hosted by the University of California, Davis.

When submitting your paper, you will be asked to include the following:

• Title
• Author and co-author(s)’s name(s)
• Paper abstract
• Paper to upload as pdf file

Full papers and extended abstracts will be reviewed. If your paper is not selected for a presentation, it may be considered for the poster session. 

PacDev welcomes paper submissions in all research topics in development economics. Priority will be given to full papers, but extended abstracts will also be considered. Submissions from junior researchers are encouraged, including submissions for a Junior Researcher poster session that is open to doctoral students in their third year or below, masters students and graduates, and advanced undergraduates.

Please submit via this site by December 14, 2025. You will be notified of a decision by January 16, 2026.