Background

Olmo van den Akker is a PhD-student at the Meta-Research center at Tilburg University, where he is currently studying the efficacy of preregistration and the way researchers interpret statistical results.

Interests

  • Meta-Research
  • Preregistration
  • Statistical inference
  • Evolutionary Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics

Education

  • Research Master's in Psychology, 2017 (cum laude)

    University of Amsterdam

  • Master's in Behavioral Economics and Game Theory, 2017

    University of Amsterdam

  • Honours Bachelor's in Psychology, 2014 (cum laude)

    University of Amsterdam

  • Bachelor's in Economics, 2013

    University of Amsterdam

Blog Posts

Why I think open peer review benefits PhD students

In this blog post I argue that the culture of ‘publish or perish’, although not a problem in theory, is a problem in practice because of the unfairness of the peer review system. In my view, opening up this system would make it fairer for all researchers, but especially for PhD students.

Plan S - Are the concerns warranted?

Plan S is the ambitious plan to make all research funded by a group of national funding agencies publicly accessible from 2020 (now 2021) onward. Since its announcement, the plan’s contents and consequences have been widely debated. In this blog post you can read about my views on this controversial plan.

Friendly or Phony? My Experience with American Generosity

During my time at the Human Generosity Project at Arizona State University I studied human generosity both in the lab as well as in the stores, bars, and streets of Arizona. In this blog post you can read about my experiences with American generosity.

Research Projects

Preregistration

Preregistration has been touted as one of the most important solutions to the replicability crisis in the social sciences. But how effective is preregistration, and how can we improve preregistration practices?

Statistical Inference

Drawing conclusions from statistics is an essential skill for researchers. But how good are researchers at interpreting statistical results in practice?

Other Meta-Research

In this section you can find all studies that do not fit into the other meta-research categories. Themes include crowdsourced data analysis, Open Science in the field of emotion research, and author name disambiguation in scientific databases.

Evolutionary Psychology

Evolution by natural selection is one of the main drivers of human behavior. How has this powerful mechanism shaped inherent elements of human nature like trusting behavior and kinship bonds?

Contact

  • ovdakker@gmail.com
  • Warandelaan 2
    5037 AB Tilburg
  • Enter the Simon Building and go up to Office 720 on the 7th floor