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SIPS 2019 Year in Review

December 31, 2019

Dear SIPS Community,

As 2019 draws to a close, I want to share with you some news and reflections about SIPS. It is an exciting time for the organization as we are growing in size and expanding our activities. Our members work at the annual conference and on their own time to make psychological science better. And we continue to depend on, and benefit from, the time, energy, and vision of volunteers who serve on committees and contribute to initiatives.

The annual conference

The 2019 conference was a great success. Attendance far outpaced our expectations, owing to a large and active open science community in Europe, and many people came to Rotterdam to work on making psychology better. The program was packed with a wide range of content. We are collecting a list of products that come out of SIPS conferences. If you were in a hackathon or other session that produced something ready to share, please let us know (sips@improvingpsych.org) so we can add it!

For 2020, we will be returning to North America, with our conference in beautiful Victoria, Canada. The program and logistics committees have been hard at work getting ready, and registration and submissions are now open! Early registration ends January 12 and is first-come, first-served. Already 200 people have registered. Don’t miss out!

Diversity and inclusion have been a core part of SIPS from its creation. At the inaugural conference in 2016, there were two cross-cutting themes considered important enough to schedule as plenary sessions before the breakout groups got to work: one on “what is open science?” and the other on diversity and inclusion. This reflected the organizers’ view that diversity and inclusion should be a part of everything we do, so that the “open” in open science truly means open and inclusive of everyone.

For 2020, we are taking a number of steps to strengthen this commitment. The 2020 programming and diversity committees will partner to ensure that at least one preplanned diversity session is on the 2020 program. Diversity programming has always been very popular, so we want to ensure that there is at least one hackathon or other session on the program. (And this should not deter anyone from submitting more!) 2020 will also see the return of the diversity re-hack. In the re-hack, people from all hackathons work together to figure out ways to make their projects and products work for as many people as possible. Thanks to generous donations from members, we are able to offer student/postdoc travel awards and diversity travel awards to make the conference more affordable. And thanks to support from the Fetzer Franklin Fund, we have geographic diversity grants available as well. Information about these grants is available on the 2020 conference website.

If you would like to make a year-end donation to the travel grants or other SIPS initiatives, you can do so on the SIPS website. (Note: these donations are tax deductible for U.S. residents.) We are very grateful to everyone who has donated money to make these activities possible.

Updated code of conduct

At our annual meetings and all other events, SIPS aims to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone. In 2017, we created a code of conduct to communicate how we will stand behind this commitment. We have recently revised our code of conduct to better align it with best practices. This includes the creation of a code of conduct committee to receive and act on reports in a way that provides continuity and can reflect multiple perspectives. You can read the new code of conduct here.

PsyArXiv

PsyArXiv continues to be a major and growing operation of SIPS. In 2019, the individuals running the service became known as the PsyArXiv Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), with new bylaws and an expanded governance structure. We have also added a Member Advisory Board with representatives from libraries and other stakeholders. We will have more to report on this in 2020. At this time, we would like to thank outgoing SAB chair Ben Brown for his extensive service and work establishing PsyArXiv. We also welcome the incoming chair of the SAB, Jack Arnal.

Preprint servers like PsyArXiv play an important role in science, offering “green” open access to articles that are otherwise hidden behind paywalls, and promoting faster and more open scientific discourse. As PsyArXiv grows, we will need to raise funds to support it. If you have the means to donate yourself, you can do so through the SIPS website. You can also help PsyArXiv by helping us contact your institution’s library to see if they want to become a supporting member (many are happy to do so!). Reach out to us at sips@improvingpsych.org to learn more.

Collabra: Psychology

Collabra: Psychology is the official journal of SIPS, operated through a partnership with the University of California Press. SIPS provides the scientific direction and governance, including selecting editors and setting policy, while UC Press acts as publisher. Unlike many other society journals, Collabra: Psychology does not produce revenue for SIPS. It is operated by two non-profits that are committed to serving the scientific community under a unique funding model. That model keeps article processing charges (APCs) lower than other open-access journals and reinvests a portion of them back in the scientific community.

There are two ways that SIPS members can support Collabra: Psychology. The first is to serve as a reviewer or an editor. A call for new editors recently closed, but individuals interested in future openings should write to sips@improvingpsych.org. The second way to support the journal is to submit your work. Because cost should be no barrier, waivers are available for anyone who does not have institutional or grant funds to pay the APC – something I am taking advantage of myself.

In closing, I want to say what a privilege it has been to serve on the Executive Committee for the past three years. I got to see up close the dedication and hard work that so many people are putting into SIPS. I have passed the baton (to the incoming executive committee and its new president Alexa Tullett), but I look forward to continuing to work with SIPS to fulfill its mission. And I look forward to seeing all of you in Victoria in June!

Sincerely,

Sanjay Srivastava

Past President