Ripeta and Wellcome collaborate to assess data and code availability in funded research projects

Ripeta and Wellcome are pleased to announce a collaborative effort to assess data and code availability in the manuscripts of funded research projects.

The project will analyze papers funded by Wellcome from the year prior to it establishing a dedicated Open Research team (2016) and from the most recent calendar year (2019). It supports Wellcome’s commitment to maximising the availability and re-use of results from its funded research.

Ripeta, a Digital Science portfolio company, aims to make better science easier by identifying and highlighting the important parts of research that should be transparently presented in a manuscript and other materials.

The collaboration will leverage Ripeta’s natural language processing (NLP) technology, which scans articles for reproducibility criteria. For both data availability and code availability, the NLP will produce a binary yes-no response for the presence of availability statements. Those with a “yes” response will then be categorized by the way that data or code are shared.

Leslie McIntosh, Ripeta CEO, said: “Wellcome has been a leading funder in supporting research transparency through open data sharing and open access to publications. This exciting opportunity offers a window into how their policy changes affect practice.”

Wellcome sees the collaboration as a way to enhance the work it already sought to do. David Carr, Programme Manager for Open Research at Wellcome said: “The availability of data and code underlying published research findings is a critical element in ensuring the research can be properly scrutinized, replicated and built upon. This collaboration gives Wellcome the information it needs to push forward on its commitment to more robustly report research outcomes.”