Prevalence of Transparent Research Practices in Psychology: A Cross-Sectional Study of Empirical Articles Published in 2022

More than a decade of advocacy and policy reforms have attempted to increase the uptake of transparent research practices in the field of psychology; however, their collective impact is unclear. We estimated the prevalence of transparent research practices in (a) all psychology journals (i.e., field-wide), and (b) prominent psychology journals, by manually examining two random samples of 200 empirical articles ( N = 400) published in 2022. Most articles had an open-access version (field-wide: 74%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [67%, 79%]; prominent: 71% [64%, 77%]) and included a funding statement (field-wide: 76% [70%, 82%]; prominent: 76% [70%, 82%]) or conflict-of-interest statement (field-wide: 76% [70%, 82%]; prominent: 73% [67%, 79%]). Relatively few articles had a preregistration (field-wide: 7% [2.5%, 12%]; prominent: 14% [8.5%, 19%]), materials (field-wide: 16% [9%, 24%]; prominent: 19% [12%, 27%]), raw/primary data (field-wide: 14% [7%, 21%]; prominent: 16% [9.5%, 24%]), or analysis scripts (field-wide: 8.5% [4.5%, 13%]; prominent: 14% [9.5%, 19%]) that were immediately accessible without contacting authors or third parties. In conjunction with prior research, our results suggest transparency increased moderately from 2017 to 2022. Overall, despite considerable infrastructure improvements, bottom-up advocacy, and top-down policy initiatives, research transparency continues to be widely neglected in psychology.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science
Published
2024-10-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/25152459241283477
Citations
6
Primary Topic
scientometrics and bibliometrics research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.77

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article

Prevalence of Transparent Research Practices in Psychology: A Cross-Sectional Study of Empirical Articles Published in 2022

Simine Vazire, Sarah R. Schiavone, Beth Clarke, Tuomas Eerola et al.
6 citations
Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science
scientometrics and bibliometrics research
2.77
article

Prevalence of Transparent Research Practices in Psychology: A Cross-Sectional Study of Empirical Articles Published in 2022

Simine Vazire, Sarah R. Schiavone, Beth Clarke, Tuomas Eerola, Robert T. Thibault, Fallon Mody, Tom E Hardwicke, Sarah A. Handcock, Sophia Crüwell, Nicholas Moodie, Khanh An Nghiem
article en
6 citations

Abstract

More than a decade of advocacy and policy reforms have attempted to increase the uptake of transparent research practices in the field of psychology; however, their collective impact is unclear. We estimated the prevalence of transparent research practices in (a) all psychology journals (i.e., field-wide), and (b) prominent psychology journals, by manually examining two random samples of 200 empirical articles ( N = 400) published in 2022. Most articles had an open-access version (field-wide: 74%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [67%, 79%]; prominent: 71% [64%, 77%]) and included a funding statement (field-wide: 76% [70%, 82%]; prominent: 76% [70%, 82%]) or conflict-of-interest statement (field-wide: 76% [70%, 82%]; prominent: 73% [67%, 79%]). Relatively few articles had a preregistration (field-wide: 7% [2.5%, 12%]; prominent: 14% [8.5%, 19%]), materials (field-wide: 16% [9%, 24%]; prominent: 19% [12%, 27%]), raw/primary data (field-wide: 14% [7%, 21%]; prominent: 16% [9.5%, 24%]), or analysis scripts (field-wide: 8.5% [4.5%, 13%]; prominent: 14% [9.5%, 19%]) that were immediately accessible without contacting authors or third parties. In conjunction with prior research, our results suggest transparency increased moderately from 2017 to 2022. Overall, despite considerable infrastructure improvements, bottom-up advocacy, and top-down policy initiatives, research transparency continues to be widely neglected in psychology.

Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological ScienceVol. 7(4)
The University of Melbourne (AU), Durham University (GB), University of Cambridge (GB), Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health (AU), Innovative Research (United States) (US), Stanford University (US)
Strong, Arnold Ventures, State Government of Victoria, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Australian Research Council
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
scientometrics and bibliometrics research
2.77
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