A proposal for a new editorial policy in the social sciences.

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Abstract

“… there’s this desert prison, see, with an old prisoner, resigned to his life, and a young one just arrived. The young one talks constantly of escape, and, after a few months, he makes a break. He’s gone a week, and then he’s brought back by the guards. He’s half dead, crazy with hunger and thirst. He describes how awful it was to the old prisoner. The endless stretches of sand, no oasis, no signs of life anywhere. The old prisoner listens for a while, then says, ‘Yep. I know. I tried to escape myself, twenty years ago.’ The young prisoner says, ‘You did? Why didn’t you tell me, all these months I was planning my escape? Why didn’t you let me know it was impossible?’ And the old prisoner shrugs, and says, ‘So who publishes negative results?’” (Hudson, 1968, p. 168)