YOUth open science

We aim to be a trailblazer in open science.

FAIR data and software 

Within YOUth we produce safe, high quality, and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data. To this end, YOUth has developed a secure data storage and sharing infrastructure (Yoda), which is now being adopted across the Utrecht University and beyond. To find out more about the development of Yoda, have a look at our article FAIR, safe and high-quality data: The data infrastructure and accessibility of the YOUth cohort study 

YOUth data is available for GDPR-compliant use in research through safe, managed access. Therefore, we have developed an online data request module, as an extension to Yoda. 

The YOUth cohort study is also part of the CD2: a project that harmonizes data from six of the largest child developmental cohort studies in the Netherlands collaborating in the Consortium on Individual Development (CID). This will allow researchers to find available data across these cohorts studies. 

Transparency 

We make all materials, protocols, data collection, training procedures and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) used in the study available. You're welcome to use our documents for your own research as long as you include the following sentence in your version of the document:
"This document is based on information provided by the YOUth Cohort Study (www.uu.nl/youthcohort)." 

Available documents

Below is an overview of all the documents we are happy to share with you and can be requested via youth@youthonderzoek.nl. As this is a Dutch study with Dutch participants, some of the material is only available in Dutch.

Ethical review documents:

• General:
  • Progress reports
• Baby & Child:
  • Framework protocol
  • Amendments to framework protocol
  • Amendments to  waves(RO, R3, R6)
• Child & Adolescent:
  • Framework protocol
  • Amendments to framework protocol
  • Amendments to waves (R9, R12)

Pre-registration

We also require public pre-registration of approved research proposals that make use of YOUth data in the YOUth Registry on the Open Science Framework (OSF) of the Center for Open Science (COS). 

Recognition and rewards

At YOUth we believe in team science: we can only do what we do because of close collaboration between scientific personnel and support staff.

Public Engagement

Through the YOUth study, we organised several public engagement activities for participants in our research. We introduced children to science by organizing children's lectures. With parents, we shared results from scientific research on child development through lectures, through social media and through a newsletter. With various articles, interviews and blogs, we gave participants a look behind the scenes of our research in order to show what doing research in practice looks like. We made videos in which scientists answer participants' questions, for example on language and questions about brain and MRI. And children could also ask us all sorts of questions. For secondary school students we offered a one-day taster internship (snuffelstage) at our research location and for primary school children we provided a toolkit for a presentation at school.

For our intermediary who helped us recruit participants – midwife practices and schools – we organized in-service training based on the expertise from the Utrecht University and the UMC Utrecht

Furthermore, the YOUth study will be included in the Utrecht University Museum permanent exhibition. The aim is to show children and parents how research is carried out into children's development. Visitors can do tests themselves and scientists will explain (on video) how and what they use results like these use for their research. The new museum opens in 2023.