Teaching what we practice means emphasising the importance of integrating Open Science principles into academic teaching. The relevance of these practices lies in fostering a learning environment that mirrors the evolving landscape of scientific research. With CLIMB Dr Meikel Soliman has developed a structured five-step approach for teaching how to climb the Open Science Mountain.
CLIMB is a five-step approach for integrating Open Science into higher education. Developed by Dr Meikel Soliman while teaching research-oriented seminars in Psychology and Economics, CLIMB helps students navigate the research process with transparency and rigor. His interactive workbook, Doing Research – A Fun Workbook (available on request), includes a chapter dedicated to Open Science using the CLIMB framework.
On 25 February 2025, Dr Meikel Soliman presented CLIMB (recording) in the Coffee Lecture on Open Science Education, a series of online presentations organised by ZBW.
The Need for Open Science in Teaching
The replication crisis has shaken research across disciplines, revealing the fragility of many seminal findings. As researchers embrace Open Science to improve credibility, it is essential to teach students these practices from the start. But how do we effectively teach what we practice?
CLIMB provides a structured approach to incorporating Open Science into research-oriented education. Just as climbers need preparation, awareness, and the right tools to scale a mountain, students must develop critical thinking and practical skills to engage with Open Science.
CLIMB is a proposal to use Open Science in higher education and focuses on 5 simple steps: Conscious, Learn, Inform, Mobilize, and Beware.
CLIMBing the Open Science Mountain: The Five Steps
Step 1 – Being Conscious of the Status Quo
The ascent begins with awareness. Students must recognise that not all research is replicable or transparent. Teachers can discuss high-profile replication failures to highlight the challenges in contemporary research. Some findings are not as easily replicable and reproducible as previously thought. Researchers need to be aware of this and create a consciousness in students that some studies are difficult to replicate, lack the necessary transparency to replicate or reproduce it, and lack sufficient information to re-run the study. By fostering a sense of awareness, students take their first step up the mountain.
Step 2 – Learn to Critically Evaluate Research
Next, students develop the skills to scrutinise research. They start by assessing papers holistically: Is the paper transparent in what the empirical approach was? Are there studies that found similar effects or even replications? Then, they dive deeper, asking pointed questions about hypotheses, sample sizes (rationales), variables (for example, manipulations and measured variables), and analyses (such as, type of analyses, exclusion of participants). Learning to question research with precision strengthens their ability to differentiate robust studies from flawed ones (see Pennington 2023 for further questions). By learning to reflect papers globally and more deeply, students can take the second step in CLIMBing the Open Science Mountain.
Step 3 – Inform about Open Science (Practices)
With critical evaluation skills in place, students need to be informed about what Open Science is and what practices it provides— pre-registration, Open Data, Open Materials, and transparent reporting. Revisiting previously discussed replication failures, teachers can illustrate how these practices enhance credibility and replicability. Students also learn to recognise Open Science badges in journals and look beyond them for true transparency. By being informed about what Open Science is, what Open Science badges mean and what kind of information to look for in the paper, students can take the third step in CLIMBing the Open Science Mountain.
Step 4 – Mobilize Students to Engage with Open Science
Knowledge alone isn’t enough — students must put Open Science into practice. Teachers can integrate pre-registration exercises into coursework, require data-sharing in research projects, and encourage the use of Open Materials in thesis work. By making Open Science a hands-on experience, students gain practical skills that will shape their future research. By mobilising students to use Open Science practices in a guided way, they can take the fourth step in CLIMBing the Open Science Mountain.
Step 5 – Beware of Pitfalls and Appreciate the Benefits
Reaching the summit requires acknowledging both the obstacles and rewards of Open Science. While implementing these practices increases workload, the benefits — structured research processes, enhanced transparency, and student enthusiasm — far outweigh the challenges. Acknowledging both the pitfalls and benefits of Open Science marks the final step in the climb.
Reaching the Summit
Teaching Open Science doesn’t have to be daunting. By guiding students through awareness, critical evaluation, informed understanding, practical application, and an appreciation of the challenges and benefits, educators can ensure the next generation of researchers is well-equipped to practice what we preach. With these five steps, we can all CLIMB the Open Science Mountain together.
As a postdoctoral researcher at Leuphana University Lüneburg and lab manager of the Leuphana Laboratories — a hub for interdisciplinary research — Dr Meikel Soliman actively promotes Open Science by providing resources and guidance on its implementation.