Misc

Assessing computational reproducibility in Behavior Research Methods appears online today.  Behavior Research Methods ( BRM ) is a journal  dedicated to the methodologies, techniques, and tools utilized in psychological research.  We recently examined computational reproducibility in BRM after changes to submission policies. Specifically, a  new policy was introduced for all new submissions on January 1st, 2020, and subsequently made public as part of an editorial: “BRM requires the information to be easily available in a repository or in an appendix” ( Brysbaert et al., 2021, p. 2 ). This project involved a large team that painstakingly sampled a variety of research assets (N=200) before and after those policy changes.  We double-coded what worked and what didn't. We even timed how long it took to get data, code, or stimulus materials up and running.  So what did we find?  The good news is that things are improving. The decay rate is also slower fo...

The systems that are meant to support research are far from perfect and I'm not just talking about the speed of peer review or a lack of data sharing . By this, I mean how we ensure the accountability and integrity of researchers themselves.   We are currently developing a Lab Values document to agree on what is important to us as a group. This will help define the ways we want to work (see here for a great example). I expect that much of this will align with the values of our institution.  But what about when those values are ignored or deliberately misconstrued?  It is safer to assume that this will happen eventually. Sad to say I've observed many issues closer to home and further away. From individuals being abusive or misogynistic to grandiose authorship claims and data fabrication on an industrial scale.  Such behaviors are likely to hurt someone's career and there are, of course, well-publicized cases where individuals have faced serious consequences. How...

Writing academic books has become somewhat less fashionable in psychology, but I’ve always been encouraged to do things I genuinely want to do rather than be completely guided by the REF, TEF or KEF etc. That advice has always stuck with me.  The book is now almost finished pending some minor edits and a bit of copyediting. I am aware that a few early versions of the manuscript have gone out to some folk who might say something nice for the back cover. Pretty much all the content is new and, I hope, as up-to-date as a book can be. Some of it naturally pulls ideas from a handful of recent papers. On a side note, it's been an interesting experience to wrestle permissions from publishers so I can re-use portions of text or figures from my own papers! Publication is penned for later this year ( update September 2020: you can buy it now) , but in the meantime here are three general things that have stuck with me throughout the course of putting it together. ...