What is Open Research? 

Unlike traditional science which has the tendency to hide data or lock articles behind a paywall, the goal of open research is to create a more inclusive and supportive culture in research.  By opening access to data, methods, results, and other aspects of the research cycle, research is made more valuable not only for researchers but for society at large.  It allows researchers to share new visions for research and collaborate with the community to make new discoveries. 

Open research bridges the gap from citizen science to the professional research community--increasing diversity, transparency, and reproducibility. 

Open Research with Labfront

As our organization’s mission is to help support researchers, naturally the open research concept resonated with us. We strongly believe in its central tenet of making research accessible, valuable, and visible for others.

After launching Labfront and working with wearable devices this past year, we noticed there were considerable knowledge gaps amongst researchers and academics interested in collecting physiological data in their studies. To address this, we’ve decided to elucidate wearable research methods for anyone interested.  Our researchers will share their projects and processes with the research community so that others can collaborate and contribute. They will provide access to their research from all stages to display transparency in the research methods.  From high-impact projects and collaborations such as Project Chéria, to pilots such as the study on social media and teens, and even our own research projects into HRV and BBI.  As field-builders in wearable technology research, we think open research strengthens the integrity of our work. We will provide an all-access view, so you can be an active participant in the research process and the outcomes--even if they’re never published. Who knows, you might even end up building upon the foundation of our research through your contributions. Let’s help shift the research culture together.

Follow our blog for a window into our research world as we provide news, articles, and videos documenting these open research initiatives.