Transparency

Improving (Our) Science

The goal of science is to accumulate knowledge about nature. There are scientific values guiding how scientists should work, and scientific practices guiding how scientists do work. This course will examine the discrepancy between scientific values …

Is There a Free Lunch in Inference?

The field of psychology, including cognitive science, is vexed by a crisis of confidence. Although the causes and solutions are varied, we focus here on a common logical problem in inference. The default mode of inference is significance testing, …

Likelihood of Null Effects of Large NHLBI Clinical Trials Has Increased over Time

Background: We explore whether the number of null results in large National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) funded trials has increased over time. Methods: We identified all large NHLBI supported RCTs between 1970 and 2012 evaluating drugs or …

Medical Product Industry Ties to Patient Advocacy Organizations’ Executive Leadership

Patient advocacy organizations (PAOs) advance patient interests through promotion of disease awareness, engagement with policymakers, and partnership with medical product manufacturers in research and development.1 However, there are concerns that, …

Open and Reproducible Research in Psychology

Psychological research is in the midst of what has been called the “replication crisis”, in which questions have been raised about the validity of even seminal research findings. How can we tell if the research we’re reading and doing is rigorous and …

Positionality Statements are just the tip of the Iceberg: Moving toward a Reflexive Process

In July 2020, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering (JWM) started requiring a positionality statement in each paper published. To the best of our knowledge, requiring a positionality statement at JWM is a first for a journal in …

Pre-registration in social psychology—A discussion and suggested template

Pre-registration of studies before they are conducted has recently become more feasible for researchers, and is encouraged by an increasing number of journals. However, because the practice of pre-registration is relatively new to psychological …

Preregistration and Registered Reports in Sociology: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Other Considerations

Both within and outside of sociology, there are conversations about methods to reduce error and improve research quality—one such method is preregistration and its counterpart, registered reports. Preregistration is the process of detailing research …

Preregistration for Quantitative Research in Psychology Template

A template to use for pre-registration

Preregistration in diverse contexts: A preregistration template for the application of cognitive models

In recent years, open science practices have become increasingly popular in psychology and related sciences. These practices aim to increase rigour and transparency in science as a potential response to the challenges posed by the replication crisis. …