The landscape of open science in behavioral addiction research: Current practices and future directions
(2023) Journal of Behavioral Addictions — (2023)
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- Authors
Eben, Charlotte 
Bőthe, Beáta Clark, Luke Billieux, Joël
- Abstract
- (en) Open science refers to a set of practices that aim to make scientific research more transparent, accessible, and reproducible, including pre-registration of study protocols, sharing of data and materials, the use of transparent research methods, and open access publishing. In this commentary, we describe and evaluate the current state of open science practices in behavioral addiction research. We highlight the specific value of open science practices for the field; discuss recent field-specific meta-scientific reviews that show the adoption of such practices remains in its infancy; address the challenges to engaging with open science; and make recommendations for how researchers, journals, and scientific institutions can work to overcome these challenges and promote high-quality, transparently reported behavioral addiction research. By collaboratively promoting open science practices, the field can create a more sustainable and productive research environment that benefits both the scientific community and society as a whole. Although behavioral addiction research emerged at the end of the last century (Holden, 2001; Marks, 1990), the nosological status of a wide range of behavioral addictions (with the exception of Gambling and Gaming Disorders) remains debated (Billieux, Schimmenti, Khazaal, Maurage, & Heeren, 2015; Mihordin, 2012; Starcevic, Billieux, & Schimmenti, 2018). Globally, the field is still often considered as an “emerging” or “new” one. We decided to write this commentary to describe and evaluate the open science practices in the field of behavioral addictions to promote awareness and to encourage the field to adopt these practices to further improve research quality in this field. Our objective was to specify what we mean when talking about open science and identify the issues pertaining to the (perceived) status quo in the field of behavioral addictions regarding open science. It is worth acknowledging that we are not the first to call for more open and transparent research in this field, and therefore the current paper is oriented towards avenues and solutions to further integrate and promote open science.
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Citations
Eben, C., Bőthe, B., Brevers, D., Clark, L., Grubbs, J. B., Heirene, R., Kräplin, A., Lewczuk, K., Palmer, L., Perales, J. C., Peters, J., van Holst, R. J., & Billieux, J. (2023). The landscape of open science in behavioral addiction research: Current practices and future directions. Journal of Behavioral Addictions. Published. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2023.00052 (Original work published 2023)