People

Fiona Fidler is a philosopher of science interested in the dynamics of methodological change. She has a long-standing interest in statistical controversies and her current work in metascience focuses on improving research culture and peer review systems to create a more trustworthy scientific evidence base.

E: fidlerfm@unimelb.edu.au
L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fiona-fidler-b0825128/
B: @fidlerfm.bsky.social

Simine Vazire is a Professor of psychology in the Ethics and Wellbeing Hub in the Melbourne School of Psychological Science and Co-Lead of MetaMelb. She studies the research methods and practices used in psychology, as well as structural systems in science, such as peer review. Her research interests on the meta-science side include assessing the quality and integrity of scientific studies, the peer review process, and the scientific community at large. She is interested in how transparency and criticism are (or aren’t) used to make science more self-correcting.  Her training is in social and personality psychology, and her interests in scientific practices and norms stems largely from her experiences in that field, particularly the so-called replication crisis. She has been an editor at several psychology journals, and co-founded the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) with Brian Nosek in 2016.

E: simine.vazire@unimelb.edu.au
W: http://simine.com/
L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simine-vazire-55061511a/
B: @simine.com

Fallon Mody is a lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies and Deputy Director coordinating MetaMelb’s Education and Training theme. This means translating metascience research developments into peer review training workshops for early career researchers, and evaluation training end-users of research. It also includes coordinating the inclusion of repliCATS and error detection modules in the curriculum both at the University of Melbourne — where  repliCATS modules have been incorporated into psychology, environment science, and philosophy of science — and beyond, leading our global ‘repliCATS in the classroom’ project.

E: fallon.mody@unimelb.edu.au
L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fallonmody
B: @fallonmody.bsky.social

Kate Williams is an Associate Professor in Public Policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences and Deputy Director coordinating MetaMelb’s Research Policy theme. This means understanding the impact metascience has on research policy and using metascientific evidence to advise on appropriate evaluation and impact measures. Kate takes a cross-national perspective on how universities and funders assess research impact and value. Her previous policy work includes commissioned reports for the ARC (review of 2018 Engagement and Impact Assessment), ACOLA (advice to the Chief Scientist on reforming research assessment), and Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee (review of national research impact). Kate’s work also underpins the University of Melbourne’s central research impact strategy.

E: kate.williams@unimelb.edu.au