anthrologue | Malika Ihle

I am the Reproducible Research Oxford Coordinator, supporting the Steering Group in developing a comprehensive approach to open scholarship and reproducible research that extends across all disciplines, using both bottom-up and top-down strategies.

I hold a PhD in Behavioral Ecology from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. During her post-docs at the University of Sheffield and University of Florida, I organised a symposium on open science at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology conference, and developed and taught a postgraduate course guiding students through the scientific pipeline, from preregistration to a reproducible and open workflow.

I am an Executive Committee member and the chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee of the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology (SORTEE) and I am the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) local network lead at the University of Oxford.

selected publications

Towards open, reliable, and transparent ecology and evolutionary biology O’Dea, R., Parker, T., Chee, Y., Culina, A., Drobniak, S., Duncan, D., Fidler, F., Gould, E., Ihle, M., Kelly, C., Lagisz, M., Roche, D., Sánchez-Tójar, A., Wilkinson, D., Wintle, B., and Nakagawa, S. BMC Biology 2021
journal abstract bib
Unreliable research programmes waste funds, time, and even the lives of the organisms we seek to help and understand. Reducing this waste and increasing the value of scientific evidence require changing the actions of both individual researchers and the institutions they depend on for employment and promotion. While ecologists and evolutionary biologists have somewhat improved research transparency over the past decade (e.g. more data sharing), major obstacles remain. In this commentary, we lift our gaze to the horizon to imagine how researchers and institutions can clear the path towards more credible and effective research programmes.
@article{O'Dea-et-al_2021, title = {Towards open, reliable, and transparent ecology and evolutionary biology}, author = {O’Dea, Rose E and Parker, Timothy H and Chee, Yung En and Culina, Antica and Drobniak, Szymon M and Duncan, David H and Fidler, Fiona and Gould, Elliot and Ihle, Malika and Kelly, Clint D and Lagisz, Malgorzata and Roche, Dominique G. and S\'{a}nchez-T\'{o}jar, Alfredo and Wilkinson, David P. and Wintle, Bonnie C. and Nakagawa, Shinichi}, journal = {BMC Biology}, date = {2021-03-09}, volume = {19}, number = {1}, pages = {1--5}, year = {2021}, doi = {10.1186/s12915-021-01006-3}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-021-01006-3}, abbr = {open research} }
Striving for transparent and credible research: practical guidelines for behavioral ecologists Ihle, M., Winney, I., Krystalli, A., and Croucher, M. Behavioral Ecology 2017
journal abstract bib
Science is meant to be the systematic and objective study of the world but evidence suggests that scientific practices are sometimes falling short of this expectation. In this invited idea, we argue that any failure to conduct research according to a documented plan (lack of reliability) and/or any failure to ensure that reconducting the same project would provide the same finding (lack of reproducibility), will result in a low probability of independent studies reaching the same outcome (lack of replicability). After outlining the challenges facing behavioral ecology and science more broadly and incorporating advice from international organizations such as the Center for Open Science (COS), we present clear guidelines and tutorials on what we think open practices represent for behavioral ecologists. In addition, we indicate some of the currently most appropriate and freely available tools for adopting these practices. Finally, we suggest that all journals in our field, such as Behavioral Ecology, give additional weight to transparent studies and therefore provide greater incentives to align our scientific practices to our scientific values. Overall, we argue that producing demonstrably credible science is now fully achievable for the benefit of each researcher individually and for our community as a whole.
@article{Ihle-et-al_2017, title = {Striving for transparent and credible research: practical guidelines for behavioral ecologists}, author = {Ihle, Malika and Winney, Isabel S and Krystalli, Anna and Croucher, Michael}, journal = {Behavioral Ecology}, volume = {28}, number = {2}, pages = {348--354}, year = {2017}, doi = {10.1093/beheco/arx003}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arx003}, abbr = {personal} }