The goal of biomedical research is to generate new knowledge that is reproducible and, ideally, useful to clinicians and policymakers.

To achieve these goals, research must be well designed, properly conducted and clearly and transparently reported. But assessing this at an individual and organisational level can be difficult without easy-to-navigate, broadly applicable tools.

To fill this gap, the Research Quality Committee at NeuRA developed the QuOCCA a simple checklist specifically designed to support researchers to conduct more open, rigorous and reproducible science, and to allow institutes and institutions to evaluate the quality of their research output. To help guide the use of the QuOCCA an Instructional Guide has been developed.

Instructional videos

This series of short videos aims to assist institutions and individual researchers that want to use the QuOCCA to identify areas of concern or ignorance. Additionally, it aims to educate researchers, and ultimately to allow review of the effectiveness of educational or other interventions aimed at improving research quality.

Click on the titles below to watch the videos.

How research institutions and institutes can use the QuOCCA

• To evaluate published research in a consistent and uniform way
• As a benchmark to guide improvements to the openness, transparency and quality of published research
• For maximum impact, the QuOCCA and its results should be accompanied by an educational programme that increases awareness and engagement with transparent and reproducible research practices

For more information about the QuOCCA, or tailoring an educational program and developing relevant resources, contact: Dr Martin Héroux

To learn more about how NeuRA developed and is implementing this tool read our paper published in BMJ Open here.

How individual researchers can use the QuOCCA

• As a simple checklist to guide the design and reporting of their research
• As a way to monitor changes in their scientific practice and that of collaborators