Part of the Oxford Forum of Open Scholarship 2025.

The format – borrowing from the popular television show of the same name – involves members from Reproducible Research Oxford (‘RROx’) and invited speakers telling a range of ‘Data Horror Stories’. These stories – invariably from personal experiences – involve nightmarish academic anecdotes where Open Scholarship has not been upheld. Audience members and participants are then interactively challenged to guess which of the stories are true, and which are false. Potential examples may include but would not be limited to issues with reproducibly, data management, and the peer review process. Despite the ‘horrific’ nature of existing practices (which we leverage for the purposes of engagement), we aim for the session to be as positive and instructional as possible. Following each of the rounds, speakers will discuss how good Open Scholarship practices could have helped to alleviate and avoid such calamitous outcomes for the betterment of scientific society.

RROx is the local network of UKRN, the UK Reproducibility Network, at the University of Oxford. We are a university-wide initiative focused on advancing the open research agenda at Oxford. The overarching goal is to promote a coordinated approach to open scholarship and research reproducibility that extends to all disciplines. We work with key stakeholders across the University towards this goal. We also coordinate several related events and initiatives throughout the year, and we maintain a list of relevant resources at Oxford and beyond.