SSLA expands its commitment to open science: Introducing Data Reports and Registered Reports

SSLA has a longstanding commitment to the ideals of open science (OS).Indeed, in recent years, the journal has intentionally and explicitly sought to implement a range of OS policies and practices.For example, like many other journals, we began by placing OS badges on articles that provide open materials and/or data, thus facilitating both (a) scrutiny from the scholarly community as well as (b) subsequent replication and re-analysis (Gass, 2019).We have also supported field-wide initiatives meant to increase transparency and reproducibility such as IRIS and the OASIS Database.Later this year, SSLA will publish a special issue on OS in the context of qualitative and mixed methods in second-language (L2) research, guest edited by Meng Liu, Ali Al-Hoorie, and Phil Hiver.And perhaps most importantly with respect to our outward commitment to OS, as of 2026, all articles published in SSLA are freely accessible.We are proud of these steps toward openness and transparency, which are key, we believe, to the notion of quality at the study-and field-wide level (Plonsky, 2024a).But we're not done.The purpose of this brief editorial is to announce the launch of two new article types, both with a strong OS orientation: Data Reports and Registered Reports.We are happy that SSLA is able to contribute to OS in these ways and, thereby, we believe, improve the quality and potential impact of the research we publish.However, recognizing that SSLA is just one of several dozen applied linguistics journals, we end this piece by addressing the role of professional organizations in fostering a culture of OS as well as some of the responsibilities we would like to see them take on.