Red Teams

Definition: An approach that integrates external criticism by colleagues and peers into the research process. Red teams are based on the idea that research that is more critically and widely evaluated is more reliable. The term originates from a military practice: One group (the red team) attacks something, and another group (the blue team) defends it. The practice has been applied to open science, by giving a red team (designated critical individuals) financial incentives to find errors in or identify improvements to the materials or content of a research project (in the materials, code, writing, etc.; Coles et al., 2020).