Commentary: Making Patient Data Count—Opportunities and Challenges for Open Science in Clinical Psychology

TY - JOUR

T1 - Commentary: Making Patient Data Count—Opportunities and Challenges for Open Science in Clinical Psychology

AU - Cwik, Jan C.

AU - Cludius, Barbara

AU - Bentz, Dorothée

AU - Riehle, Marcel

AU - Ehrenthal, Johannes C.

AU - Haberkamp, Anke

AU - Clamor, Annika

AU - Blackwell, Simon E.

AU - Kämpf, Maike Salazar

AU - Nazarenus, Edgar

AU - Rahal, Rima‐Maria

AU - Möllmann, Anne

AU - Fink‐Lamotte, Jakob

AU - Burghardt, Juliane

AU - Boehnke, Jan R.

AU - Hilbert, Kevin

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2026 The Author(s). Journal of Clinical Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

PY - 2026/6/5

Y1 - 2026/6/5

N2 - Open science practices—such as preregistration, data and material sharing, and open-access dissemination—are increasingly promoted across psychology, yet their specific value for clinical psychology has often been overlooked. This commentary argues that open science is particularly crucial for clinical psychology, where studies rely on small, hard-to-recruit patient samples, ethically sensitive data, and complex psychotherapeutic interventions. However, applying open science practices in one's research can be challenging. And yet, it is becoming increasingly necessary to take a stance on this. To support our colleagues in clinical psychology to take a stance on open science practices and to motivate them to apply these practices in their research, we describe here how the use of open science practices benefits or can benefit clinical psychology science and practice and provide some perspective on why we believe that the increasing use of open science practices is consistent with good scientific practice and the ethical standards of our profession. In addition, we discuss how calls for increased implementation of open science practices in psychological research can be reconciled with some of the challenges, concerns, and conflicts that can arise around open science practices, especially in clinical psychology. Finally, we extend open science's inclusive and collaborative stance to include “experts by experience” in the research process. Including our research topics in the research process is a specific facet of the open science approach in clinical psychology that has been overlooked.

AB - Open science practices—such as preregistration, data and material sharing, and open-access dissemination—are increasingly promoted across psychology, yet their specific value for clinical psychology has often been overlooked. This commentary argues that open science is particularly crucial for clinical psychology, where studies rely on small, hard-to-recruit patient samples, ethically sensitive data, and complex psychotherapeutic interventions. However, applying open science practices in one's research can be challenging. And yet, it is becoming increasingly necessary to take a stance on this. To support our colleagues in clinical psychology to take a stance on open science practices and to motivate them to apply these practices in their research, we describe here how the use of open science practices benefits or can benefit clinical psychology science and practice and provide some perspective on why we believe that the increasing use of open science practices is consistent with good scientific practice and the ethical standards of our profession. In addition, we discuss how calls for increased implementation of open science practices in psychological research can be reconciled with some of the challenges, concerns, and conflicts that can arise around open science practices, especially in clinical psychology. Finally, we extend open science's inclusive and collaborative stance to include “experts by experience” in the research process. Including our research topics in the research process is a specific facet of the open science approach in clinical psychology that has been overlooked.

KW - Open Science

KW - Clinical Psychology

KW - Psychotherapy Research

KW - Open Research

KW - Patient-centered

KW - Experts by experience

KW - Research ethics

U2 - 10.1002/jclp.70162

DO - 10.1002/jclp.70162

M3 - Comment/debate

C2 - 42244393

SN - 0021-9762

JO - Journal of Clinical Psychology

JF - Journal of Clinical Psychology

ER -