As the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic passes its peak in many countries, serological studies are becoming increasingly important in guiding public health responses. Antibody testing is crucial for monitoring the evolution of the pandemic, providing a more complete picture of the total number of people infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) than molecular diagnostic testing alone.1Cheng MP Yansouni CP Basta NE et al.Serodiagnostics for severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus-2.Ann Intern Med. 2020; (published online June 4.)https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-2854Crossref Scopus (44) Google Scholar All individuals with SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies have been exposed to the virus, so antibody testing can highlight differences in past exposure between regions, demographic groups, and occupations.2Metcalf CJE Farrar J Cutts FT et al.Use of serological surveys to generate key insights into the changing global landscape of infectious disease.Lancet. 2016; 388: 728-730Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Google Scholar Seroprevalence estimates can also be used to estimate the infection fatality rate.3Erikstrup C Hother CE Pedersen OBV et al.Estimation of SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality rate by real-time antibody screening of blood donors.medRxiv. 2020; (published online April 28.) (preprint).https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.24.20075291Google Scholar Dashboards that visualise COVID-19 cases confirmed by diagnostic testing have been pivotal in enabling policy makers and researchers to monitor the pandemic.4Dong E Du H Gardner L An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time.Lancet Infect Dis. 2020; 20: 533-534Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (387) Google Scholar Yet, despite the value of antibody testing, there is no unified resource for seroprevalence estimates.To address this need, we created SeroTracker, a custom-built dashboard that systematically monitors and synthesises findings from hundreds of global SARS-CoV-2 serological studies. The dashboard allows users to visualise seroprevalence estimates on a world map and compare estimates between regions, population groups, and testing modalities (eg, assay type or antibody isotype).

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30631-9

SeroTracker: a global SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence dashboard

10.31234/osf.io/9j24a

Our understanding of how stress affects primary school children’s attention and learning has developed rapidly. We know that children experience differing levels of stressors (factors that cause stress) at home, and that this can influence how they respond to new stressors when they occur in educational contexts. Here, we review evidence showing that stress can increase children’s attention and learning capacities in some circumstance but hinder them in others. We show how children differ in their attention and learning styles, dependent on stress levels: for example, more highly stressed children may be more distracted by superficial features and may find it harder to engage in planning and voluntary control. We review intervention research on stress management techniques in children, concentrating on psychological techniques (such as mindfulness and stress reappraisal), physiological techniques (such as breathing exercises) and environmental factors (such as noise). At the current time, teachers’ awareness of the differing stress response of their pupils may be the most effective factor in helping them accommodate the needs of the children in their classrooms.

Stress and learning in pupils: Neuroscience evidence and its relevance for teachers

osfr provides a (hopefully) convenient R interface to OSF (Open Science Framework, https://www.osf.io), a free service for managing research developed by the Center for Open Science (COS). osfr completed its rOpenSci peer-review earlier this year and has been available on CRAN since February. Throughout its development and since its release I’ve had numerous conversations with members of the R community about OSF (and osfr), and through these interactions a couple recurring patterns emerged. First, it seems that many R users have heard of OSF but relatively few have first-hand experience with it. Second, I’m often asked how OSF compares to GitHub and whether it would even be useful for someone who already uses GitHub to manage their research. In a future post I’ll highlight some features of osfr and demonstrate how it can help form the basis of efficient and inclusive research workflows. However, before you can extract any value from osfr, you need to be an OSF user first. And so, I wanted to take this opportunity to provide a little background about OSF, what it offers, how it differs from something like GitHub, and where it might fit into your workflow as an R/GitHub user. Before diving in, I want to acknowledge that OSF is a multi-faceted product, and includes a number of services under its umbrella, including things like pre-print servers and a research registration repository, which, while incredibly cool and noteworthy, fall outside the scope of this post, which focuses on project management.

OSF: A Project Management Service Built for Research

10.31234/osf.io/6mrgv

Research on health misinformation has grown rapidly as concerns about the potential harmful effects of health misinformation on individuals and society intensify amid a “post-truth” era. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of current research and evidence concerning the many facets of health misinformation, including its sources, prevalence, characteristics (both content and diffusion features), impact, and mitigation. We conclude that health misinformation originates from many sources, most notably mass and social media, is fairly prevalent, both in interpersonal and mediated settings, and tends to feature negative sentiments, anecdotal evidence, and anti-science narratives. While there is no conclusive evidence that health misinformation spreads more broadly than scientific information, health misinformation reliably leads to misperceptions on health issues. Efforts to mitigate the impact of health misinformation show early promise in correcting misperceptions. We offer several directions for future research, including a call for more investigations on the impact of health misinformation and correcting messages on actual behaviors.

Health Misinformation

Oxford professor says institutions are being forced to reopen but fears student arrivals on campus will trigger Covid-19 outbreaks

UK universities putting finances above student safety, expert warns

Your questions answered on what type of mask to wear to cut the risk of getting Covid-19

What kind of face mask best protects against coronavirus?

10.31234/osf.io/af8u4

Background The COVID-19 outbreak is severely affecting overall mental health with unknown psychological consequences. The Italian Government has implemented a massive lockdown to decrease the spread of the virus. Although a strong psychological impact is possible, few evidences are still available. Past studies have shown that resilience decreases the negative effects of stress promoting mental health. For these reasons, this study aimed to examine depression, anxiety, and stress among the Italian general population during the phase characterizing by lockdown, and to investigate the role of resilience as a potential predictor. Methods A total sample of 6314 Italian people participated in this study. Participants were recruited between March 10 and May 4 2020 through an online survey, the majority of whom from Northern Italy. The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) (a measure of mental health status) and the Resilience Scale (RS) (a measure of resilience) were administered. Also, demographic data and lockdown related information were collected. DASS-21 cut-off scores were used to verify the mental status among the participants. Subsequently, a correlational analysis was carried out to examine relationships between DASS-21 and RS. Lastly, three hierarchical regression analyses were conducted using the three DASS-21 scales as dependent variables and the RS scales as independent variables controlling for age, gender, and education. Results The prevalence of moderate to extremely severe symptoms among participants was 36.1% for depression, 28.7% for anxiety, and 35.6% for stress. Results of correlational analysis showed that resilience factors, such as meaningfulness, self-reliance, existential aloneness, and equanimity, are inversely associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. Results of regression analyses indicated that all the resilience factors were statistically significant in predicting anxiety, while meaningfulness, perseverance, existential aloneness, and equanimity predicted depression and stress. Conclusions During the lockdown following the COVID-19 outbreak, about a third of respondents reported moderate to extremely severe depression, anxiety, and stress. The present study suggests that psychological resilience may independently contribute to low emotional distress and psychological ill-being. These findings can help explain the variability of individual responses during the COVID-19 outbreak. Psychological interventions to enhance resilience might provide useful approaches to overcome COVID-related emotional impact.

Resilience contributes to low emotional impact of the COVID-19 outbreak among the general population in Italy

10.31234/osf.io/27fy6

An increasing number of studies have addressed the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis in the general population. Nevertheless, far less is known about the impact in specific populations such as university students, whose psychological vulnerability has been shown in previous research. This study sought to examine different indicators of mental health in university students during the Spanish lockdown; we also analyzed the main sources of stress perceived by students in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, and the coping strategies adopted when faced with the situation. Data was collected from 932 students (704 women) through a web-based platform. Measures of anxiety (i.e., GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), irritability and self-perceived change in mental health were administered, as well as ad hoc measures of stressors and coping strategies. Results indicated that students experienced considerable psychological problems during the confinement, with higher rates of emotional difficulties in women and undergraduate students than in men and postgraduates, respectively. Psychological distress was mainly related to several specific domains of stressors, as perceived by the participants: academic future, task overload, worsening of interpersonal conflicts, and restrictions in pleasant social contact; and far less related to the spread of the disease and its consequences for physical health. As regards coping strategies, both reframing skills and daily routines were shown to be the most effective. A path-analysis model integrating stressors, coping, and mental health revealed that coping strategies partially channeled the effect of stressors on psychological health. In general, results suggest that students’ psychological health was substantially affected by the COVID-19 situation and that the academic and relational changes were the most notable sources of stress. This study reinforces the need to monitor and promote mental health in university students to boost resilience in times of crisis. Our results on effective coping strategies may inform preventive programs aimed at helping students to deal with challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.

COnVida-20(1)

The virality of the video underscores the difficulty in moderating coronavirus misinformation as treatments and public health responses have become more political.

Dark money and PAC's coordinated 'reopen' push are behind doctors' viral hydroxychloroquine video

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), in their investigation into the vulnerability of the UK's minority ethnic groups to COVID-19,1Platt L Warwick R Are some ethnic groups more vulnerable to COVID-19 than others?. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, LondonMay, 2020Google Scholar found hospital deaths in England of Black and south Asian ethnic groups to be inexplicably higher than those of the white British majority after taking into consideration demographic and geographical profiles. However, they did not consider as possible factors the prevalence of sickle cell anaemia or β-thalassaemia.

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30583-1

Potential factors linked to high COVID-19 death rates in British minority ethnic groups

The collapse of global cooperation and a failure of international solidarity have led to many low-income and middle-income countries being denied access to molecular diagnostics in the COVID-19 pandemic response. Yet the scarcity of knowledge on the dynamics of the immune response to infection has led to hesitation on recommending the use of rapid immunodiagnostic tests, even though rapid serology tests are commercially available and scalable. On the basis of our knowledge and understanding of viral infectivity and host response, we urge countries without the capacity to do molecular testing at scale to research the use of serology tests to triage symptomatic patients in community settings, to test contacts of confirmed cases, and in situational analysis and surveillance. The WHO R&D Blue Print expert group identified eight priorities for research and development, of which the highest is to mobilise research on rapid point-of-care diagnostics for use at the community level. This research should inform control programmes of the required performance and utility of rapid serology tests, which, when applied specifically for appropriate public health measures to then be put in place, can make a huge difference.

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30517-X

Serology testing in the COVID-19 pandemic response

“We're not just fighting a pandemic; we're fighting an infodemic,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's director-general, at the 2020 Munich Security Conference. Fake news, misinformation, and conspiracy theories have become prevalent in the age of social media and have skyrocketed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation is extremely concerning because it undermines trust in health institutions and programmes. On June 29, WHO formally began the conversation on the global effects and management of infodemics with its 1st Infodemiology Conference that convened international experts from diverse scientific and political backgrounds.

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30565-X

The COVID-19 infodemic

Will the U.S. learn lessons from the Great Recession or just repeat the same mistakes?

Cities Are Running Out of Money

10.31234/osf.io/dr798

COVID-19-related social-distancing measures have dramatically limited physical social contact between individuals of all ages. We wondered how these new societal conditions would impact the choices of individuals of different ages given known age differences in social preferences, and if social distancing measures would have a differential emotional impact on older individuals. Early popular media reports suggested that older adults were more likely to ignore social distancing guidelines. Across two samples, we found that although older adults were more likely to prefer smaller, sooner (i.e., temporally discount) social and health-related rewards in decision-making tasks, there were no adult age differences in social distancing behavior. The increased motivation for immediate social contact in older age appears to be balanced by a similarly increased motivation for physical health. Additionally, although older adults reported being more likely to contract COVID-19 and experience more severe health consequences, they experienced fewer overall COVID-19-related mental health symptoms compared to younger adults. These data contradict media anecdotes and suggest that older adults are not only similarly compliant with distancing guidelines, but also are faring relatively better emotionally during the pandemic while overall mental health issues are higher than normal in the population.

Decision making and mental health across adulthood during social distancing

10.31234/osf.io/dkc7m

During respiratory viral epidemics and pandemics such as the COVD-19 pandemic, everyday behaviors such as leaving the house and touching frequently-used surfaces become the subject of fear and avoidance due to their potential for contagion. Despite the potential mental health related impact of this psychological phenomenon, there are currently no measures available that are designed to evaluate the extent to which individuals become fearful of these everyday situations during a respiratory viral pandemic. Here, we developed and assessed the psychometric properties of the Avoidance of Respiratory Viral Infection Scale (ARVIS) questionnaire across two samples recruited online (ns = 243, 341) recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results indicate that the ARVIS is best described by a single factor and shows a high reliability (Chronbach’s alpha > .88). It showed convergent associations with state anxiety and low discriminant associations with general trait anxiety and depression. Moreover, the ARVIS was highly associated with the extent to which subjects reported engaging in handwashing and social distancing, demonstrating criterion validity. This new scale provides a validated measure for assessing virus-related fear that can facilitate research into the psychological effects of respiratory virus pandemics.

Development and validation of the Avoidance of Respiratory Viral Infection Scale (ARVIS)

10.31234/osf.io/rcqx3

There is a global consensus about the potential of the COVID-19 pandemic to affect people's mental health. In this context, and prior to the formulation of mitigation strategies, tools are required that allow an objective and effective assessment of mental health risk. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of COVID-19 Stress Scale, formulated by Taylor et al. (2020), based on the concept of COVID-19 Stress Syndrome. A national sample of 1214 participating adults was taken in Colombia, who answered a translated version of the scale. Evidence of a hexa-dimensional structure was obtained whose goodness of fit indicators were Chi2 = 1215,759, Sig. =. 000, CMIN / DF = 2.202, RMSEA = .044, NFI = .943, TLI = .964, CFI =. 968 and FMIN = 1,967. Regarding reliability, an α = .924 and Spearman-Brown = .824 were obtained for the entire scale; the reliability indicators of the 6 subscales were also high. The similarities and differences in the findings with respect to the original psychometric study of the scale are discussed, as well as the utility and importance of the instrument as a tool in future efforts to mitigate the psychosocial effects of the pandemic.

Validation to Spanish version of the COVID-19 Stress Scale

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, there has been reportedly online discussion among parents who hope to build up their children's immunity through 'COVID mixers'—gatherings where kids intentionally contract the virus from someone who had tested positive.

Parents Consider 'COVID Mixers' to Infect Healthy Children and Build Herd Immunity

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced restaurants to limit and change operations. Even as cities and states begin to reopen, our community of nearly 60,000 restaurants continues to face unprecedented challenges. We’ve summarized the data from the restaurants on our platform and are updating it daily.

The state of the restaurant industry

One of the most productive experiences editors at The Lancet have had during the past 6 months has been the intense collaborations with medical and public health scientists in mainland China and Hong Kong. Cooperation began early in the pandemic. During the last week of January, The Lancet published five research papers from mainland China and Hong Kong describing the clinical presentation of patients with COVID-19, human-to-human transmission, genomic relatedness to the SARS coronavirus, and the risks of a global pandemic. Those papers set out the story of the pandemic that has since evolved—from lockdowns to personal protective equipment, school closures to expanded use of intensive care services. The world owes Chinese and Hong Kong scientists a debt of gratitude for their carefully calibrated warnings. But today's global narrative is exactly opposite to that judgment. In the western world, China is seen as an increasing threat to international peace and security. Anti-China rhetoric reached its peak this week. The latest threat being promulgated is that, as one newspaper put it, “China will blitz the UK with a ‘cyber 9/11’”.

10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31600-7

Offline: COVID-19 and the dangers of Sinophobia

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the rush to scientific and political judgments on the merits of hydroxychloroquine was fuelled by dubious papers which may have been published because the authors were not independent from the practices of the journals in which they appeared. This example leads us to consider a new type of illegitimate publishing entity, “self-promotion journals” which could be deployed to serve the instrumentalisation of productivity-based metrics, with a ripple effect on decisions about promotion, tenure, and grant funding.

10.31222/osf.io/64u3s

Publication by association: the Covid-19 pandemic reveals relationships between authors and editors

Contact tracing is a fundamental public health intervention, and a mainstay in efforts to control and contain severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of writing, the pandemic has caused more than 13 million cases and more than 578 000 deaths.1Johns Hopkins University of MedicineCOVID-19 dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.htmlDate accessed: July 15, 2020Google Scholar Regions with the most successful containment to date have approached the pandemic with integrated measures that include cohesive leadership, effective communication, physical distancing, wearing of face coverings, improvements in the built environment, promotion of hand hygiene, and support for the staff, supplies, and systems needed to care for patients—with testing and contact tracing as cornerstones of the approach. Despite the emergence of some promising therapies2Sanders JM Monogue ML Jodlowski TZ Cutrell JB Pharmacologic treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a review.JAMA. 2020; 323: 1824-1836Google Scholar and work towards a future vaccine,3Lurie N Saville Hatchett R Halton J Developing Covid-19 vaccines at pandemic speed.N Engl J Med. 2020; 382: 1969-1973Crossref PubMed Scopus (54) Google Scholar basic public health approaches remain the best available prevention and control interventions at this time.

10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30160-2

Can digital contact tracing make up for lost time?

Belgium has the sad distinction of leading the world league table of deaths from COVID-19. At 843 deaths per million, Belgium is ahead of the UK (650 per million), Italy (576 per million), Sweden (537 per million), and France (458 per million). COVID-19 was first reported in Belgium on Feb 4, 2020, in a 54-year-old man who had been repatriated from Wuhan, China. Community transmission was confirmed in early March after holiday makers returned from school vacation breaks in northern Italy. The national sense of failure and anger is spurring a serious effort to initiate an international inquiry into the global response to the pandemic. Last week, Belgium's Chamber of Representatives took evidence in support of two resolutions. The first calls for an independent international investigation into the causes of the COVID-19 global crisis. The second calls for an examination of the part played by China in the pandemic's origin and evolution. The tone of the discussion was highly critical of China and WHO. Thierry Kellner lectures in the Department of Political Science at the Free University of Brussels. “Dark areas” of the pandemic response needed to be illuminated, he suggested. The world wants to know the influence of China on WHO. Kellner argued that China must engage with these questions or else the regime can never be trusted. And WHO? Kellner claimed that WHO's behaviour has led to widespread public distrust of the agency. Only a full and independent investigation would restore confidence in WHO.

10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31524-5

Offline: Restoring trust in WHO

We read with interest Stefan Lohse and colleagues' Correspondence about sample pooling for testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in asymptomatic people.1Lohse S Pfuhl T Berkó-Göttel B et al.Pooling of samples for testing for SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic people.Lancet Infect Dis. 2020; (published online April 28.)https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30362-5Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar Some of the findings Lohse and colleagues report do not seem to be consistent with other research results2Yelin I Aharony N Shaer Tamar E et al.Evaluation of COVID-19 RT-qPCR test in multi-sample pools.Clin Infect Dis. 2020; (published online May 2.)DOI:10.1093/cid/ciaa531Crossref PubMed Google Scholar,  3Eis-Hübinger AM Hönemann M Wenzel JJ et al.Ad hoc laboratory-based surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 by real-time RT-PCR using minipools of RNA prepared from routine respiratory samples.J Clin Virol. 2020; 127104381Crossref Scopus (1) Google Scholar nor our experiences.

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30516-8

Challenges and issues of SARS-CoV-2 pool testing

COVID-19 has not affected all scientists equally. A survey of principal investigators indicates that female scientists, those in the ‘bench sciences’ and, especially, scientists with young children experienced a substantial decline in time devoted to research. This could have important short- and longer-term effects on their careers, which institution leaders and funders need to address carefully.

Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30580-6

Nucleic acid amplification tests are invaluable tools for rapid and accurate detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections,1D'Cruz RJ Currier AW Sampson VB Laboratory testing methods for novel severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2).Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020; 8: 468Crossref PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar,  2Shi J Han D Zhang R Li J Zhang R Molecular and serological assays for SARS-CoV-2: insights from genome and clinical characteristics.Clin Chem. 2020; (published online May 21.)https://doi:10.1093/clinchem/hvaa122Crossref Google Scholar but they are of limited use when identifying transmission events and infection clusters.3

COVID-19: from rapid genome sequencing to fast decisions

Economists welcome the chance to see whether giving people cash to spend however they choose improves livelihoods.

Pandemic speeds largest test yet of universal basic income

The enrollment of new international students in America could reach its lowest point since the end of World War II, according to a new analysis. U.S. consulate closures, travel bans and other challenges mean that when U.S. university administrators open their doors in Fall 2020, they are unlikely to see many new faces from abroad. New information obtained from the State Department on consulate openings and administration policy may further discourage students and universities.

New International Students To U.S. May Hit Post-WW2 Low

See our letter to government ministers asking government to embark on a better conversation with the public about Covid-19 risks.

A better conversation about covid-19 risk with the public

At the time of writing, 11.5 million tests for Covid-19 have been carried out or posted in the UK.  Since March, the government has invited the country to judge its progress on these tests by announcing measurable targets. We have written about some of them before, but new data and new targets have since arrived. Here we attempt to describe exactly what was promised, and exactly what happened afterwards. Examining the government’s public statements, we’ve identified six distinct targets so far.

Did the government meet its Covid-19 test targets?

As conference cancellations cut revenue, some scholarly organizations are fighting to stay afloat.

How scientific societies are weathering the pandemic’s financial storm

10.31234/osf.io/j3m2y

Previous research has suggested that the Dark Triad traits and, specifically, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, are associated with a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. The current study (N = 203) aimed to replicate and extend the existing research by examining the relationship between the Dark Tetrad traits—Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism—and a novel measure of COVID-19 conspiracist ideation. Machiavellian views and psychopathic antisociality were significant positive predictors of the tendency to believe in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, even when accounting for the participants’ knowledge about COVID-19. Overall, the results suggest that some (but not all) aspects of the Dark Tetrad are associated with COVID-19 conspiracist ideation.

Predicting COVID-19 conspiracist ideation from the Dark Tetrad traits

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, religious gatherings have become intense hot spots for the spread of the virus. In this research, we focus on the religiosity of communities to examine whether religiosity helps or hinders adherence to mitigation policies such as shelter-in-place directives. Prior research makes opposing predictions as to the influence of religiosity. One stream predicts greater adherence because of rule-abiding norms and altruistic tendencies while another predicts lower adherence as a reaction against the restriction of personal and religious freedom. We used shelter-in-place directives as an intervention in a quasi-experiment to examine adherence over 30 days as a function of religiosity in the most populous metropolitan areas in the United States. When a shelter-in-place directive had not been imposed, religiosity did not affect people’s movements. However, when the directive was imposed, higher religiosity resulted in less adherence to shelter-in-place directives.

10.31234/osf.io/ngdys

Religion and Reactance to COVID-19 Mitigation Guidelines

10.31234/osf.io/f4uaj

The International Brain Laboratory (IBL) is a collaboration of ~20 laboratories dedicated to developing a standardized mouse decision-making behavior, coordinating measurements of neural activity across the mouse brain, and utilizing theoretical approaches to formalize the neural computations that support decision-making. In contrast to traditional neuroscientific practice, in which individual laboratories each probe different behaviors and record from a few select brain areas, IBL aims to deliver a high-throughput, high-density approach to behavioral and neural assays. This approach relies on a highly distributed, collaborative network of ~50 researchers—postdocs, graduate students, and scientific staff—who coordinate the intellectual, administrative, and sociological aspects of the project. In this article, we examine this network, extract some lessons learned, and consider how IBL may represent a template for other team-based approaches in neuroscience, and beyond.

Knowledge across networks: how to build a global neuroscience collaboration Authors

10.1038/d41586-020-02073-2

Hector Aguilar-Carreno is working from home to direct his team’s promising work on a COVID-19 vaccine.

Remote controller

Coronavirus outbreaks are up to 20 times more likely in large care homes, according to a major study seen by the Guardian, prompting calls to divide them into “bubbles” before any second wave hits.

Covid-19 outbreaks up to 20 times more likely in large care homes, study finds

10.31234/osf.io/uqak8

Study quality is emerging as an essential component of evidence syntheses and allows practitioners and policymakers to make informed decisions based on the quality of the evidence reviewed. Study quality is typically assessed by checklists of pre-determined quality criteria. Few study quality checklists have been systematically evaluated, and none have been developed specifically for survey studies in psychology. The present study addresses this evidence gap by developing the quality of survey studies in psychology (Q-SSP) checklist, using an expert-consensus method. An international panel of experts in psychology research and quality assessment (N = 53) evaluated the inclusion and importance of candidate quality items and offered commentary. The resulting checklist was used to evaluate a set of survey studies and inter-rater reliability of checklist scores was computed. A preliminary test of criterion validity of checklist scores was conducted using on a sample of survey studies with ‘known differences’ in study quality verified by experts. Experts exhibited high agreement on inclusion and importance ratings of the candidate items. Minor adjustments were made to the candidate items based on experts’ feedback. Inter-rater reliability of study quality scores using the checklist was high. Some evidence for criterion validity of scores using the checklist was obtained. Overall, we provide preliminary data to support the Q-SSP checklist as a potential means to evaluate the quality of survey studies in psychology. We recommend a large-scale study using the Q-SSP checklist to assess study quality in studies with known differences in quality verified by experts.

A Checklist to Assess the Quality of Survey Studies in Psychology

10.31234/osf.io/y6tcz

Analytic flexibility is known to influence the results of statistical tests, e.g. effect sizes and p-values. Yet, the degree to which flexibility in data-processing decisions influences the reliability of our measures is unknown. In this paper I attempt to address this question using a series of reliability multiverse analyses. The methods section incorporates a brief tutorial for readers interested in implementing multiverse analyses reported in this manuscript; all functions are contained in the R package splithalf. I report six multiverse analyses of data-processing specifications, including accuracy and response time cutoffs. I used data from a Stroop task and Flanker task at two time points. This allowed for an internal consistency reliability multiverse at time 1 and 2, and a test-retest reliability multiverse between time 1 and 2. Largely arbitrary decisions in data-processing led to differences between the highest and lowest reliability estimate of at least 0.2. Importantly, there was no consistent pattern in the data-processing specifications that led to greater reliability, across time as well as tasks. Together, data-processing decisions are highly influential, and largely unpredictable, on measure reliability. I discuss actions researchers could take to mitigate some of the influence of reliability heterogeneity, including adopting hierarchical modelling approaches. Yet, there are no approaches that can completely save us from measurement error. Measurement matters and I call on readers to help us move from what could be a measurement crisis towards a measurement revolution.

Reliability Multiverse

How might behavioural science help us tackle coronavirus as lockdowns ease throughout the world? Co-author of bestselling book Nudge and author of How Change Happens joins us to talk about why social movements catch on, the power of nudges, COVID and coping with change.

Can behavioural science beat C19? A ThinkIn with Nudge author Cass Sunstein

The two articles agree in their mistrust of media-certified experts. Here’s Taleb: Both forecasters and their critics are wrong: At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many researcher groups and agencies produced single point “forecasts” for the pandemic — most relied on the compartmental SIR model, sometimes supplemented with cellular automata. The prevailing idea is that producing a numerical estimate is how science is done, and how science-informed decision-making ought to be done: bean counters producing precise numbers. Well, no. That’s not how “science is done”, at least in this domain, and that’s not how informed decision-making ought to be done. Furthermore, subsequently, many criticized the predictions because these did not play out (no surprise there). This is also wrong. Both forecasters (who missed) and their critics were wrong — and the forecasters would have been wrong even if they got the prediction right. . . . Here are Ioannidis et al.: COVID-19 is a major acute crisis with unpredictable consequences. Many scientists have struggled to make forecasts about its impact. However, despite involving many excellent modelers, best intentions, and highly sophisticated tools, forecasting efforts have largely failed. . . . Despite these obvious failures, epidemic forecasting continued to thrive, perhaps because vastly erroneous predictions typically lacked serious consequences. . . .

(Some) forecasting for COVID-19 has failed: a discussion of Taleb and Ioannidis et al.

COVID-19 has laid bare the United States economically and epidemiologically. Decisions must be made as how and when to reopen industries. Here we quantify economic and health risktradeoffs of reopening by industry for each state in the US. To estimate total economic impact, we summed income loss due to unemployment and profit loss. We assesstransmission risk by: (1) workplace size, (2) human interactions, (3) inability to work from home, and (4) industry size. We found that the industry with the highest estimated economic impact fromCOVID-19 was manufacturing in 40 states; the industry with the largest transmission risk index was accommodation and food services in 41 states, and the industry with the highest economic impact per unit of transmission risk, interpreted as the value of reopening, was manufacturing in 37 states.Researchers and decision makers must work together to consider both health and economics when making tough decisions

1They stumble that run fast: the economic and COVID-19 transmission impacts of reopening industries in the US

As coronavirus cases surge in Latin America, the Colombian city of Medellin is defying expectations and managing to keep numbers remarkably low.

Colombia’s Medellin emerges as surprise COVID-19 pioneer

A crucial indicator of whether Americans feel safe returning to normal activities.

How’s the Economy Doing? Watch the Dentists

10.31234/osf.io/5w7du

That American and European participants are overrepresented in psychological studies has been previously established. In addition, researchers also often tend to be similarly homogenous. This continues to be alarming, especially given that this research is being used to inform policies across the world. In the face of a global pandemic where behavioral scientists propose solutions, we ask who is conducting research and on what samples. Forty papers on COVID-19 published in PsyArxiV were analyzed; the nationalities of the authors and the samples they recruited were assessed. Findings suggest that an overwhelming majority of the samples recruited were from the US and the authors were based in US and German institutions. Next, men constituted a large proportion of primary and sole authors. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Too WEIRD, Too Fast: Preprints about COVID-19 in the Psychological Sciences

As the coronavirus pandemic forces people to keep their distance, could this be robots‘ time to shine? A group of scientists think so, and they’re calling for robots to do the “dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs” of infectious disease management.