Fellows contribute leadership and expertise to Project TIER's ongoing efforts in curriculum development and outreach.
Fellowships last for one academic year, and are awarded to individuals with demonstrated skill in training students in transparent and reproducible methods of quantitative research.
Six cohorts of TIER Faculty Fellows served from 2015/16 through 2020/21. Information about the previous Fellows is available on our people pages.
About the Fellowships
Fellows are typically faculty members in any quantitative discipline who teach classes on statistical methods and/or supervise undergraduate or graduate students conducting empirical research. Individuals with non-faculty appointments (e.g., in libraries or research institutes) whose work is aligned with the goals of Project TIER are also welcome to apply.
Although the official term of the Fellowships is one academic year, candidates who demonstrate a commitment to remaining involved in Project TIER beyond that period will be especially attractive. We hope that the focus on transparency and reproducibility that Fellows adopt during the Fellowship year will become a lasting feature of their teaching and research advising, and that alumni of the Fellowship will continue to work with us on outreach and resource development. Our long-run goal is to foster a network of educators working collaboratively to promote training in transparent quantitative research, and we anticipate that TIER Fellows will form the core of this community.
Fellows have responsibilities in three areas:
- Incorporating transparency and reproducibility in their own teaching and/or research advising.
- Engaging in the development and/or dissemination of methods for conducting or teaching transparent research.
- Attending two conferences for TIER Fellows.
Each Fellow receives a stipend of $5,000.
Teaching and Research Advising
Fellows are expected to introduce their students to principles and practices of research transparency in their own teaching and/or research advising. This can take place in classes on quantitative methods, topics courses that involve statistical exercises or projects, or in the supervision of undergraduate or master’s theses, second-year projects in graduate programs, or doctoral dissertations. In some cases, the training in research transparency that Fellows provide their students is based on methods already being promoted by Project TIER; in others, Fellows introduce new approaches that expand the scope of Project TIER.
Communication between Fellows and the TIER directors about the classes or advising roles in which the Fellows address transparency is essential. From time to time throughout the year, we ask Fellows to provide us with information on these activities, and to send us course documents (e.g., syllabi, exercises, project instructions, or links to on-line resources created for courses) that reflect the ways in which they have introduced their students to research transparency. We also request that Fellows send us copies of exemplary student work (subject to the consent of the students who produced the work).
It is also important that Fellows evaluate in some systematic way the effectiveness or impact of the transparency-related components of their teaching and/or advising. In many cases, this simply entails adding several questions to a standard course evaluation form, but we also welcome more innovative approaches to assessing the pedagogical value of teaching principles and practices of research transparency. Whatever forms of evaluation Fellows undertake, we ask them to share the findings with us, comment on the feedback received from students, and discuss any lessons they can draw from the experience.
Curriculum Development and Outreach
The Fellowship application also asks candidates to propose one or more curriculum development and/or outreach activities that they would undertake beyond their own classrooms to promote research transparency. These activities may be carried out either independently or in collaboration with other Fellows and associates of Project TIER.
Diversity and Inclusion
As articulated in Project TIER's statement on diversity and inclusion, we are committed to promoting diversity among the colleagues with whom we collaborate as well as the students whom our programs ultimately serve.
We seek to manifest those values in all our programs, and in the personal essay on the Fellowship application, we ask candidates to discuss any ways in which they might be able to contribute to our efforts to promote diversity and inclusion.
Fellows Conferences
Fellows participate in two Fellows Conferences, once at the beginning of their terms and once at the end. These events are an opportunity for Fellows completing their terms to reflect on their experiences of the past year, and for the new Fellows to discuss their plans for the upcoming year. Past Fellows Conferences have been collegial and engaging, and interactions among Fellows have led to productive collaborations.