Psychology

A healthy PhD

PhD training in psychology asks people to receive training while simultaneously executing the essential work of a university. A healthy PhD approach that places student wellbeing ahead of productivity is a counterweight to these conditions.

Are Psychology Journals Anti-replication? A Snapshot of Editorial Practices

Recent research in psychology has highlighted a number of replication problems in the discipline, with publication bias – the preference for publishing original and positive results, and a resistance to publishing negative results and replications- …

Coping with common PhD challenges by making the implicit explicit

It is normal to deal with difficult situations during PhD studies. Students and their advisors can set themselves up for success and minimize potential challenges with foreknowledge and by making expectations and workflows explicit.

Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions

Unprecedented social, environmental, political and economic challenges — such as pandemics and epidemics, environmental degradation and community violence — require taking stock of how to promote behaviours that benefit individuals and society at …

Empirical assessment of published effect sizes and power in the recent cognitive neuroscience and psychology literature

We have empirically assessed the distribution of published effect sizes and estimated power by analyzing 26,841 statistical records from 3,801 cognitive neuroscience and psychology papers published recently. The reported median effect size was D = …

Graduate students need more quantitative methods support

Graduate students in psychology need hands-on support to conduct research using quantitative techniques that exceed their curricular training. If supervisors are not willing or able to provide this support, student-led projects must be redesigned to …

How to classify, detect, and manage univariate and multivariate outliers, with emphasis on pre-registration

Researchers often lack knowledge about how to deal with outliers when analyzing their data. Even more frequently, researchers do not pre-specify how they plan to manage outliers. In this paper we aim to improve research practices by outlining what …

Increasing the transparency of systematic reviews: Presenting a generalized registration form

This paper presents a generalized registration form for systematic reviews that can be used when currently available forms are not adequate. The form is designed to be applicable across disciplines (i.e., psychology, economics, law, physics, or any …

Mentorship practices that improve the culture of peer review

The current system of peer review drives racial and gender disparities in publication and funding outcomes and can suppress the perspectives of marginalized scholars. Established researchers have an opportunity to help to build a fairer and more …

Mini course on reproducibility & open research

This mini course was designed to introduce Psychology undergraduate students at the University of Edinburgh (who are working on their dissertation in the academic year 2021-2022) to open research principles and practices. The course contains 5 …