At the Researcher to Reader Conference, which takes place in London at the end of February each year, Rick Anderson puts together a formal debate program, in which two teams of two people each face off to debate a proposition provided to them ahead of time. Each side makes an opening statement, and then each side responds, and then there is discussion with the audience. The audience is polled to determine its level of agreement with the proposition both before and after the debate itself, and whichever team moves the most votes in its direction is declared the winner. The proposition around which the debate took place in 2023 was: Resolved: Open practices make science better. The debate materials have been shared in the Zenodo entry: Introduction text Opening Speech from the team speaking in favor of the proposition Opening speech from the team speaking against the proposition Response from the team speaking in favor of the proposition Response from the team speaking against of the proposition Closing statement