Experimental Design and Reproducibility in Science 2023-2024 - COMPLETED -

Detailed Plan:

• Why is a clear experimental design important? We will highlight the importance of correctly planning an experiment to avoid taking wrong conclusions and benefit the most from the data collected.
• Key aspects of experimental design: Participants will learn how to define variables and establish protocols starting from a clearly defined question.
• Estimation of sample size: Participants will learn how to use power analysis.
• Why reproducibility is important: We will go through the reasons why is it important to keep our research reproducible for others and for ourselves.
• Working with Github: Participants will become familiar with the use of Github as a tool to detail steps of data analysis and data processing and even manuscript writing.
• Data processing workflows: Participants will become familiar with different workflows that allow to create reproducible steps in data processing using open-source tools.
• Notebooks (R and Jupyter): Using two of the most common scripting languages in biology, participants will see how notebooks can be used to create fully automated and reproducible analyses.
• Manuscript and data repositories: We will discuss the advantages of sharing documents in these types of platforms.
• Participants will be given an exercise in which to apply the acquired knowledge on experimental design and reproducibility.

Participants have to be present at 85% of the contact hours (this means that they can miss one half-day), and actively participate in all activities. 

Students fees

Free for 1st year PhD students in  Doctoral programmes  at FCUL (e.g. Biologia), Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution (BIODIV UL; UP), Biology and Ecology of Global Changes (BEAG UL, UA) and Sustainability Science (UL, several institutions), when the course counts credits for their formation, in which case the delivery of a final report done after the course is mandatory; the course is also free for more advanced PhD students of the BIODIV programme (ULisboa or UPorto); 50 € for more advanced PhD students of cE3c; 80 € for PhD students of the PEERS network (CFE); 125 € for FCUL Master students and unemployed; 180 € for BTI, BI and other PhD students; 250 € for Professional and postdocs.

When the maximum number of students is reached, 12 vacancies will be available for non-paying 1st year PhD students mentioned above, being, by order of preference students from: 1) cE3c; 2) BIODIV (not from cE3c); 3) FCUL (not from cE3c); 4) Sustainability Science (not from cE3c or FCUL); 5) BEAG (not from cE3c or FCUL).