ManyPrimates 3: Inference by Exclusion

How to contribute?

ManyPrimates is a platform for promoting large scale collaboration and open science practices in primate cognition research. In this project (MP3), we will assess the ability of primates to make inferences by exclusion, i.e. the ability to reconstruct the identity of an unknown alternative by eliminating known options.

ManyPrimates 3 consists of four separate experiments, three physical tasks (MP3A1-3) and one computerized task (MP3B). Our preregistration of MP3A can be found here, the preregistration for MP3B is currently under development. Participating sites can freely choose for how many tasks they would like to contribute data.

We are currently collecting data for this project!
Get in touch if you have any questions about how to get started

1. Get in touch

The first step is to write an email to the ManyPrimates 3 General Coordinator, stating how you would like to contribute. There are many different ways besides data collection to contribute to a ManyPrimates project and you can find details about the types of contributions in our authorship guidelines.

If you are planning to collect data, please state in your email the site, species and (estimated) number of subjects per species you are planning to contribute and which MP3 experiment(s) you would like to contribute to. If you haven’t already, join our Slack workspace. Slack is a messaging tool we use for asking questions as well as for discussions and coordination.

2. Collect data for ManyPrimates 3

Before you begin

If you decide to collect data for ManyPrimates 3, we will create a dedicated folder for your test site that includes helpful templates and that you can use to submit your files to. One of these templates is for a short description of your site. Please fill it out before you start collecting data. If you contributed to a ManyPrimates study previously, review and update the description of your site.

Once you hear back from the Data Collection Oversight Team, you can start to implement the procedure and make a short video clip of the setup and procedure at your site. There is no need to have a (non-human) primate subject present for this. Upload the video to your site folder, send an email to notify the Data Collection Oversight Team, and the team will take a look at the video and give you feedback before you start data collection. We want to make sure that data collection is as consistent across sites as possible. If pre-recording a video is not possible (e.g. because you work in a remote field site), please get in touch with the coordination team to fully finalize your methods before data collection. Please reach out if you have any questions!

Make sure that our ethics guidelines apply to your site and obtain approval by your relevant ethics committee before you collect any data. Please note that MP3A will be open to researchers who do not conduct invasive research of any kind. If you have any questions about ethics or specific ethical constraints, please reach out to the ManyPrimates 3 General Coordinator before you start collecting data.

Data collection

Now you can start collecting data. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with the coordination team if something comes up during data collection.

Please use the datasheet template and instructions included in your site folder to code your data. The Data Collection Oversight Team will supply you with an R script that will help you to automatically create a customized data spreadsheet. You can enter data directly into your spreadsheet in your site folder, or enter your data offline, and upload the spreadsheet back into your folder when you’re done.

When entering data it is really important that you only enter the kinds of values that are in the template for each column. This will make merging the many datasets much easier. If something is unclear with regard to data entry, please get in touch with Data Collection Oversight Team.

ManyPrimates is committed to open science. That is, all our procedures and analyses are pre-registered. Furthermore, all data files and analysis scripts will be freely available in a public repository and all papers will be published in open access journals.

5. Contribute in other ways (coordination, analysis, writing)

There are many other ways beyond collecting data in which you can contribute to ManyPrimates 3. Ways to contribute include:

  • Join our monthly task force meetings where we discuss coordination of data collection, analysis plan, etc.
  • Support the Data Collection Oversight Team
  • Join the MP3A data analysis planning group
  • Join the MP3B (computerized task) programming and debugging group
  • Support the social media team and website content management

In all cases, the first step is to contact the ManyPrimates 3 General Coordinator. Thank you for being one of ManyPrimates!

Contact

MP3 General Coordinator mp3_coordination@eva.mpg.de

Matthias Allritz

MP3 Data Integrity Oversight manyprimates@gmail.com

Manuel Bohn

MP3 Data Collection Oversight Team

Carla Pascual-Guàrdia

Olivia Reilly

ManyPrimates Ethics Oversight manyprimatesethics@gmail.com

Dr. Lauren Robinson

ManyPrimates Communication Officers manyprimatescommunication@gmail.com

Carla Pascual-Guàrdia

Emma McEwen

Parvathi Vijay