By SORTEE | June 6, 2022
[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
Name: Tanya Strydom.
Date: 09 July 2021.
Position: Graduate Student.
How did you become interested in open research?
At a graduate-level (field) course. This was the first time that I was really introduced to the bigger issue of open research and (by extension) reproducibility, and I decided then and there it was time to Stan… I think this was in part because someone was there to hold my hand through the ‘scary unknown’ of what reproducibility looks like (and how to work towards it), which probably says something about the importance of integrating openness and reproducibility into student training.
What’s an ‘ORT’ subject or practice that you think deserves more attention?
Code sharing and data availability should 100% be the norm whenever possible (we should acknowledge that some data might be sensitive and cannot be shared). Knowing how (as opposed to only what) methods were implemented is not only an important step in ‘checking’ research integrity but also makes your research more accessible as it easier for others to put your workflow into their research pipeline.
If you could start your career over again, but had to switch to another field or subdiscipline, what would you switch to? Why?
It’s a toss up between palaeontology or geology for me. The idea of working with something from ‘way back when’ and at such a huge scale (at least in terms of tectonic processes) fills me with childlike wonder and awe.
Where to find you online?:
Twitter: @TanyaS_08
