There are so many ways to do science. One of them is to analyze data that you didn’t collect! In this episode, Jess and Sara talk about how to go about science-ing with secondary data: Where to find data, coming up with research questions, and how to write a grant when you’re planning on using secondary data. Finally, we talk about how to do open science when you’re working with data that’s already been shared elsewhere.

Email us letters about developmental science at [email protected]. More episodes and podcast information at WithinandBetweenPod.com. Our theme music was composed by Jason Flowers. Our logo was created by Nathan Archer.

Understanding whether a conclusion in a paper you read or an experiment you run is a valid one is, well, let’s just say pretty important, and more than a little confusing. In this episode, we talk through the Big Four Validities (™):  Internal, External, Statistical Conclusion, and Construct Validity.  It may sound similar, but we promise this is more fun than your last research methods lecture! 

In this episode we mention: 

Shadish WR, Cook TD, & Campbell DT (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin

Email us letters about developmental science at [email protected]. More episodes and podcast information at WithinandBetweenPod.com. Our theme music was composed by Jason Flowers. Our logo was created by Nathan Archer. This episode was recorded January, 4, 2026.

Sometimes grad students or people who are advising them will ask us if they should take extra statistics classes. Most programs require a few, and so they wonder what the benefit might be for spending the time, energy, and effort to learn even more statistical methods. In this episode Jess and Sara will describe what we think the benefits are of those classes, and what classes we think people should consider taking as they make their way through their programs. We also talk about some special considerations for early career folks. Spoiler alert: Yes. You should take extra classes. Have a listen and find out why. 

Email us letters about developmental science at [email protected]. More episodes and podcast information at WithinandBetweenPod.com. Our theme music was composed by Jason Flowers. Our logo was created by Nathan Archer.

Job Talks, they’re different from conference talks! Here, Jess and Sara talk about what we think is the most successful structure for a job talk; what to include and how long to spend in each area. We describe the purpose of this talk, and what you should think about when writing one. We provide some of our favorite tips for getting the talk ready to present. Hint: practice, practice, practice!

Email us letters about developmental science at [email protected]. More episodes and podcast information at WithinandBetweenPod.com. Our theme music was composed by Jason Flowers. Our logo was created by Nathan Archer. Recorded November 23, 2026

One question Jess and Sara get a lot is whether doing a postdoc is a good idea. Here, we talk about what a postdoc is, how long it lasts, and what kinds of jobs a postdoc can take on. We also describe what we see as the advantages and disadvantages of the position. We talk a bit about our past times as post docs, and what kinds of things you can do when you are there, and what kinds of grants are available just for you if you decide to go for it. 

In this episode, we mention this nice resource for postdocs:

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/grants-contracts/postdoc-guide 

Email us letters about developmental science at [email protected]. More episodes and podcast information at WithinandBetweenPod.com. Our theme music was composed by Jason Flowers. Our logo was created by Nathan Archer.

Well 2025 was a year with lots of uncertainty. Jess and Sara talk about how the funding landscape has changed for us, how it has changed our work, and how we are handling it (hint: it’s not great!). We go through ideas of how to pivot your work when there may not be new funding, and describe kinds of projects you can do with minimal outside funding. We expect that academia is going to be a bit different for a while, so we talk about how we can be thoughtful about that in applying for jobs, mentoring, and reviewing our colleagues. We may all need to stare out some windows for a while. 

A recent data sharing paper with repository resources! https://doi.org/10.25894/rise.2604.

Email us letters about developmental science at [email protected]. More episodes and podcast information at WithinandBetweenPod.com. Our theme music was composed by Jason Flowers. Our logo was created by Nathan Archer.

Episode recorded 09/06/2025

No, you’re not having deja vu. It’s a different kind of two part episode, one that is two and a half years in the making. Sara has moved to a new institution! And just to one up Jess, she has also moved to a new country! Listen to hear her talk about what it’s like to move institutions as a (ahem) senior professor. What kinds of things do you have to think about across research, teaching, and service as you’re deciding whether to and eventually planning for a move. And what do you do about email? Well, some of us made smarter choices than others.

Email us letters about developmental science at [email protected]. More episodes and podcast information at WithinandBetweenPod.com. Our theme music was composed by Jason Flowers. Our logo was created by Nathan Archer.

Recorded 11/30/2024

It’s no mystery that research papers are essential for academic work. What IS a mystery is how to figure out who should be an author on those academic papers and how to have conversions about it. In this episode, Jess and Sara go over some authorship roles, guidelines and rules that govern authorship in the field, and talk about different ideas of determining order of authorship. This episode was recorded live at the Emerging Perspectives on Early STEM Learning, Development, and Education Workshop hosted by Purdue's Center for Early Learning.

In this episode we mention: 

APA Standards for authorship.

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), 

The 14 CRediT authorship roles:  https://credit.niso.org 

The Authorship Project: https://repository.charlotte.edu/islandora/object/work%3A921 

In this episode, Jess and Sara reckon with what the preregistration revolution means in developmental science. We first visited preregistration and registered reports in Season 3. Since then, we’ve been a part of many preregistrations and registered reports, and have reviewed and handled them as editors. Through that process, we’ve noticed that questions often come up about whether something is really a preregistration and whether some studies or analyses can or should be preregistered. 

We mention: 

Several definitions: Open Science Framework:  “Preregistration is the practice of documenting your research plan at the beginning of your study and storing that plan in a read-only public repository”. APA: “Preregistration allows researchers to specify and share the details of their research in a public registry before conducting the study.” IES - no definition, just that you should do it; it’s part of the SEER standards.  REES similarly just says “REES is designed to increase transparency of and access to information about both ongoing and completed efficacy and effectiveness studies.” Even the preregistration revolution article doesn’t include a definition. The closest it gets (about ⅓ of the way through the article is “Preregistration of an analysis plan is committing to analytic steps without advance knowledge of the research outcomes.” 

Paper about preregistering exploratory analyses: Compares it to a funded sea voyage:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7098547/ 

What can we say about the often used and often confused statistical approach that is moderation? Quite a lot actually. In this episode Jess and Sara introduce the basics of moderation (aka statistical interactions) using absolutely no math (or very nearly absolutely no math). Listen to get a primer on the kinds of questions you can ask with moderation, and to get answers to common moderation questions like: Why is my interaction negative if my main effect is positive? Can I interpret the man effect if the interaction is significant? Why is my interaction significant if my main effect isn’t? And how do I graph the result when I have continuous variables? 

(see the figure Sara is talking through on our website: http://www.withinandbetweenpod.com/)

Connect with the podcast on twitter @within_between, or email us letters about developmental science at [email protected]. More episodes and podcast information at WithinandBetweenPod.com. Follow Dr. Hart on twitter @Saraannhart Follow Dr. Logan on twitter @Jarlogan. Our theme music was composed by Jason Flowers. Our logo was created by Nathan Archer. Recorded August 5, 2023.