Glossary

This is a mini glossary of science-related terminology, sorted alphabetically. For a broader overview regarding open-science related terms, please refer to the FORRT glossary (Parsons et al., 2022).

Term	Definition	References
Article/author processing charges (APCs)	A fee charged to authors by a publisher in exchange for publishing and hosting an open access article.	Parsons et al., 2022
Big Team Science	A method that engages a considerable number of contributors, who may be situated in diverse research environments, including laboratories, academic institutions, and academic disciplines, as well as representing a range of cultural and geographical backgrounds.	Forscher et al. (2023)
Data management plan	A document describing how the data will be handled during a project and what happens with the data after the project ends.	Michener (2015)
Cover letter	A letter to the editor of a scientific journal that is submitted together with a manuscript. It outlines the importance of the study and summarizes key findings and contributions to the field. Some journals explicitly require such a letter, while others actively discourage it.	Palminteri (2023)
Corresponding author	The corresponding author is typically the researcher who takes primary responsibility for communication regarding the manuscript, during both pre-publication and post-publication phases. This usually includes communication with the publisher, the readers, and handling requests for data-sharing. Note that different journals may have different requirements for corresponding authors.	Pain, 2021
CRediT Statement	A taxonomy of 14 roles that can be assumed when being part of a research project. The statement can be included at the end of a manuscript to transparently report which author assumed which roles.	Brand et al. (2015); Tay  (2021)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	A number and letter string to identify and protect intellectual property in a digital environment (e.g., https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470610689151).	Chandrakar (2006)
Data wrangling / munging	The process of transforming and mapping data from one “raw” data form into another format with the intent of making it more appropriate and valuable for a variety of downstream purposes such as analytics.	Endel & Piringer (2015); Kandel et al. (2011)
Early career researcher (ECR)	An individual that is early in their academic career. Typically from graduate or PhD student to postdoc level, sometimes even young principal investigators such as junior professors.	Bazeley (2003); Laudel & Gläser (2008)
First author	The first author is the person listed first in an author list of a manuscript. In many fields, it is the person who has done most of the hands-on work and who has taken on a pivotal role in the research project. Shared co-first authorship is possible when two (or more) authors provided equal first-author-level contributions.	Riesenberg (1990)
Garden of Forking Paths / Researcher degrees of freedom	Metaphor for the many (analytic) decisions that researchers can take, leading to many possible outcomes. The multitude of possible decisions can give rise to questionable measurement practices such as p-hacking or hypothesizing after the results are known (HARKing).	Gelman & Loken (2013); Botvinik-Nezer et al. (2020)
Impact factor	A metric used to evaluate the relative importance of a scholarly journal in a particular field by measuring the average number of citations received per article published in that journal over a specific period of time. It is calculated by dividing the total number of citations a journal receives in a given year by the total number of articles published by the journal in the preceding two years and commonly used as a tool to assess the quality and significance of research, and has become an influential factor in the academic publishing industry, although it is controversially discussed.	Sharma et al. (2014)
Ivory tower	A metaphor for academia, portraying scientists as a group of closed-off individuals living in a tower and discussing scientific progress only amongst themselves, limiting the outreach of scientific results.	Bond & Paterson (2005); Lewis, (2018)
Lab book	Also known as a laboratory notebook, is a scientific record-keeping tool used by researchers, scientists, and students to document their research project, experiments, observations, data, and findings.	Schnell (2015); Guerrero et al. (2019)
Open-access	When scholarly content (such as software, data, materials, or output) is published in a way that is freely available to everybody.	Evans & Reimer (2009)
Operationalization	The process of rendering a theoretical construct concrete and tangible, thereby facilitating empirical observation and study.	Hauke et al. (2021)
Paywall	A digital barrier implemented by academic publishers restricting access to scholarly content (e.g., articles) to researchers or institutions that have paid for a subscription (or a one-time access). These costs are intended to cover processes associated with editing, peer-reviewing, and formatting; however, paradoxically, they limit dissemination and potentially hinder scientific progress. Hence, some researchers advocate for open access publishing models to promote equity in knowledge distribution.	Barbour et al. (2006); Day et al. (2020)
Peer review	The act of giving feedback on a manuscript under consideration at a scientific journal. Typically, a minimum of two reviewers that are experts in the field are invited to comment on a manuscript. Subsequently, editors make a decision whether to accept or reject the submission and authors can be asked to revise their work based on reviewers’ comments.	Jana (2019)
Pilot study	A pilot study is a small-scale preliminary investigation that is conducted before a larger research project or study to test the feasibility of the research design, methods, and instruments. The primary purpose of a pilot study is to identify potential problems and areas for improvement in the research protocol, which can be rectified before conducting the actual study.	Arain et al. (2010); In (2017); Thabane et al. (2010)
Postprint	The accepted or published version of a manuscript in a scientific journal. Postprints can often be shared on public repositories to make them accessible to everyone and forgo the “paywall”. Note that journal-specific policies (e.g., embargo periods) need to be considered.	Harnad (2003)
Power analysis	A statistical method used in research to determine the sample size needed for a study to achieve a desired level of statistical power. Statistical power refers to the ability of a study to detect a significant effect (or difference) between groups or conditions when a true effect (or difference) exists.	Kemal (2020)
Preprint	A version of a manuscript that has not yet been peer-reviewed and published in a scientific journal, but is uploaded to an open-access online repository, usually at the time of submission to a journal. Since preprints did not undergo the established scientific quality-control process (i.e., peer review), preprints usually include a brief note that the reported findings should be examined with caution by practitioners, journalists, and policymakers. Please note that preprint servers can also include postprints (see term definition above).	Hoy (2020); Wingen et al. (2022)
Rebuttal	A written response to a criticism made against a research manuscript or proposal. It aims to refute or dispute opposing arguments by presenting counter-evidence or alternative interpretations or theories. Thus, rebuttals are an important aspect of peer review processes, which allows for the improvement of scientific work through constructive feedback or critical discourse.	Palminteri (2023)
Registered Report	A type of scholarly article format that involves a two-stage peer review process. In this format, authors submit a detailed research proposal or protocol to a journal, which is then peer-reviewed before any data is collected. If the proposal is deemed to be methodologically sound and potentially impactful, the journal agrees in advance to publish the results of the study, regardless of the outcome.	Henderson & Chambers (2022)
Revise and Resubmit	An outcome resulting from the submission of a manuscript to a scientific journal. The manuscript is rejected in its current form, but the authors are invited to revise and resubmit their work after incorporating feedback from reviewers.	Kornfield (2019)
Reproducibility	The ability to successfully reproduce (parts of) experiments from other researchers in similar or different contexts, i.e., coming to the same conclusions as the original researchers.	Pennington (2023)
Senior author	The senior author is the lead person (e.g., classically the principal investigator; PI), primarily associated with funding, supervision, or major responsibility for the project. Shared co-senior authorship is possible when two (or more) authors provided equal senior-author-level contributions.	Pain (2021)
Standard operating procedure (SOP)	Documents or materials describing study procedures or processes for the purpose of establishing and managing data quality and reproducibility.	Manghani (2011)
Type I error rate	Type I or alpha error rate in statistics refers to the probability of rejecting a null hypothesis when it is actually true. In other words, it is the likelihood of obtaining a statistically significant result by chance alone, without any true underlying effect.	Banerjee et al. (2009)
Type II error rate	Type II or beta error rate in statistics refers to the probability of falsely rejecting the alternative hypothesis and maintaining the null hypothesis, when the alternative hypothesis is actually true. Beta can be used in power analyses.	Hartgerink et al. (2017)
Work package	A major sub-part of a research project with a specific and verifiable end-point (e.g., a fully-programmed paradigm, an ethics approval, a dissemination item or any other deliverable in the project).	Li & Hall (2019)