LIFOS: A Safe Learning Environment for Students to Practice the Full Open Science Workflow
Abstract
Open Science practices are rapidly becoming more common, resulting in the need for students to learn these practices as part of their academic training. Despite the growing relevance, realistic implementations in study programs that effectively mimic openness remain scarce. To address this gap, we developed LIFOS—Local Infrastructure for Open Science, a GitLab-based platform specifically built for student training in Open Science practices. Accompanied by open educational material, LIFOS emulates the Open Science Framework, enabling students to preregister their studies, share data, analysis scripts, and final reports, akin to established open repository platforms. This setup allows archiving student work sustainably and operates distinctly from the research activities of academic staff. Importantly, LIFOS is only accessible within the university, fostering a safe learning environment. Here, we will present the concept and integration of LIFOS, allowing others to adopt the platform in their teaching, and further share insights into its impact and usability based on data we collected from students in psychology bachelor courses who worked with LIFOS.
