Canadian Metaresearch Data Challenge

About the Call

The organizing committee of the 2nd Canadian Open Science Conference, to be held October 27–29, 2026, at University of Ottawa, invites proposals for our Metaresearch Data Challenge.

This challenge asks participants to develop an approach for mapping the Canadian metaresearch landscape in a way that is open, reproducible, and inclusive of diverse research traditions and methodological approaches.

Selected proposal teams will be invited to implement their proposed methodology and present their work during a 30-minute plenary session on the second day of the conference.

Funding of up to CAD $4,000 will be available to support travel, accommodation, and related participation costs for the selected individual(s).

Research Traditions and Areas of Interest

We explicitly welcome proposals that recognize the diversity of metaresearch traditions and research cultures, including but not limited to:

• Metascience and metaresearch
• Bibliometrics and scientometrics
• Science and technology studies, also known as STS
• Research integrity and reproducibility research
• Scholarly communication research
• Open science and open scholarship research

Proposals may focus on methodological innovation, data infrastructure, analytical approaches, visualization strategies, or combinations of these elements.

Scope and Suggested Components

Individuals or teams are invited to propose a methodology for identifying, analyzing, and documenting the Canadian metaresearch landscape.

Potential components may include:

• Search and retrieval strategies using OpenAlex
• Inclusion and exclusion criteria to define the community
• Validation plans to assess dataset coverage, precision, and potential biases
• Documentation and workflow practices to support reproducibility
• Topic modeling and thematic mapping
• Citation and bibliometric analyses
• Co-authorship and institutional collaboration network analyses
• Mapping of research communities, infrastructures, and funding relationships
• Open dissemination strategies for code, data, and documentation
• Approaches for identifying underrepresented communities, disciplines, or languages

Teams are encouraged to critically reflect on the assumptions, limitations, and potential biases of their proposed methodology and describe these in the application.

Deliverables for Selected Teams

The selected individual(s) will be expected to:

• Implement the proposed methodology prior to the conference
• Produce an openly available dataset and accompanying documentation
• Share code, workflows, and analytical methods where feasible
• Present their findings during a 30-minute plenary session at the conference

Eligibility

We welcome participation from:

• Researchers and trainees
• Librarians and information professionals
• Infrastructure and platform specialists
• Data scientists and developers
• Open science and scholarly communication practitioners
• Interdisciplinary and cross-sector teams

Participants from all career stages, disciplines, and countries are encouraged to apply. Teams do not need to be based in Canada.

Selection Process

Proposals will be evaluated based on:

• Methodological rigor
• Feasibility to deliver in the timeline
• Reproducibility, openness, and transparency
• Inclusiveness and attention to diversity in metaresearch traditions
• Originality and potential impact
• Clarity of proposed outputs and documentation

Submission Details

To apply to the data challenge, please complete the application form and submit it through this website.

Submission Deadline

July 1, 2026

Notification of Results

July 10, 2026