Webinar: Publication Bias
Publication Bias Webinar (Monday, 18 August 2019, 10.00 WIB/13.00 AEST)
Aims
This webinar aimed to familiarise Indonesian researchers with publication bias and meta-research. Systematic review and meta-analysis are rarely seen in Indonesian scientific discourse, while those might offer a better evidence and insight than a single study. By organising this webinar, we hoped to cover some introductory questions related to publication bias which are including:
- Why does a single empirical study offer such a limited insight?
- What is publication bias?
- Why does it matter?
- How could it happen?
- ..and why researchers should solve this problem together?
The main idea of this webinar was spreading ‘a sense’ that science is in crisis and therefore reformation is desperately needed. We would amplify this ‘sense of crisis’ by organising a follow-up webinar in September (Replication Crisis by Lysander James) and ‘resolve the tension’ by organising another (and larger) webinar in October (Advancing Science by Practicing Open Scientific Practices - in collaboration with Center for Open Science).
Signing-up
We advertised the webinar through IMs and social media and was hoping to expand the coverage, despite the limited capacity of hosting. Anyone who was interested in joining needed to sign-up through Google Forms. We also provided FAQs and a technical guide to join a webinar in our website in order to anticipate technical problems prior to the event.
Potential participants’ profiles
In 14 August (15:04 WIB), we had 55 potential participants who had signed up to join the webinar. Participants were mostly researchers/full-time lecturers, working at various universities in Indonesia. Participants are concentrated in Java (the most populous island), but we had been working hard to expand the coverage to the outer islands. We didn’t have a record about the exact number of participants, but from a rough observation, there were 35-40 people attended the webinar.
Most participants (60%) admitted that they never conduct meta-research, but had heard about it and might be doing it in the future. Additionaly, 29.1% never heard about meta-research, but are very interested in learning more. A small fraction of participants (9.1%) said they had conducted meta-analysis before.
How we organised the webinar
We used Zoom’s conference call (not webinar feature), so the room is limited only to 100 participants. Amelia sent an invitation to all participants and the presenter (Dr Mathew Ling). Webinar format is not something that everyone is familiar to, so moderators (Erwin, Amelia, Ilham, and Annas worked together to help solving technical glitches and to break language barrier.
Webinar structure
| AEST | WIB | Length | Schedule | Presenter/Moderator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12.45 | 09.45 | 15 minutes | Opening the room and helping to fix technical problems | Amelia & Ilham |
| 13.00 | 10.00 | 5 minutes | Welcoming everyone and introducing Mathew to participants (mostly in Bahasa Indonesia, but Amelia summed up in English via chatroom) | Erwin |
| 13.05 | 10.05 | 30 minutes | Main topic | Mathew Ling (Amelia and Erwin summed up Mathew’s talk in Bahasa Indonesia. Erwin was drawing a visual note, while Amelia was writing a short summary via chatroom) |
| 13.35 | 10.35 | 15 minutes | Q&A session (participants raised their questions via chatroom) | Mathew (Amelia and Annas selected questions and translated those to Mathew, and Erwin summed up Mathew’s answers via chatroom) |
| 13.50 | 10.50 | 10 minutes | Closing and advertising upcoming webinars | Amelia |
Recorded Video
Slides, visual notes, and chat transcript
Slides
Click here to download the slides
Chat transcript
Click here to download the chat transcript
Visual notes
Event Poster
