Metascience

A survey on how preregistration affects the research workflow: better science but more work

The preregistration of research protocols and analysis plans is a main reform innovation to counteract confirmation bias in the social and behavioural sciences. While theoretical reasons to preregister are frequently discussed in the literature, the …

Association between trial registration and treatment effect estimates: a meta-epidemiological study

To increase transparency in research, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors required, in 2005, prospective registration of clinical trials as a condition to publication. However, many trials remain unregistered or retrospectively …

Can a Good Theory Be Built Using Bad Ingredients?

The replication crisis threatens to seriously impact theory development in the cognitive, behavioral, and social sciences. We canvas three desiderata of scientific theories (explanation, prediction, and unification) and argue that the extent to which …

Comparing Analysis Blinding With Preregistration in the Many-Analysts Religion Project

In psychology, preregistration is the most widely used method to ensure the confirmatory status of analyses. However, the method has disadvantages: Not only is it perceived as effortful and time-consuming, but reasonable deviations from the analysis …

Computational social science is growing up: why puberty consists of embracing measurement validation, theory development, and open science practices

Puberty is a phase in which individuals often test the boundaries of themselves and surrounding others and further define their identity – and thus their uniqueness compared to other individuals. Similarly, as Computational Social Science (CSS) grows …

CONSORT statement adherence and risk of bias in randomized controlled trials on deep caries management: a meta-research

Background Recently, trials have supported changes in deep caries management. However, reporting might lack details, affecting interpretation and implementation. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the adherence to the CONSORT statement and the risk of bias …

Guidelines to improve internationalization in the psychological sciences

Conversations about the internationalization of psychological sciences have occurred over a few decades with very little progress. Previous work shows up to 95% of participants in the studies published in mainstream journals are from Western, …

How to Produce, Identify, and Motivate Robust Psychological Science: A Roadmap and a Response to Vize et al.

Some wish to mandate preregistration as a response to the replication crisis, while I and others caution that such mandates inadvertently cause harm and distract from more critical reforms. In this article, after briefly critiquing a recently …

Meta-assessment of bias in science

Numerous biases are believed to affect the scientific literature, but their actual prevalence across disciplines is unknown. To gain a comprehensive picture of the potential imprint of bias in science, we probed for the most commonly postulated …

Questionable Metascience Practices

Metascientists have studied questionable research practices in science. The present article considers the parallel concept of questionable metascience practices (QMPs). A QMP is a research practice, assumption, or perspective that has been questioned …