Dive Brief:
- Two professors from Cornell University's Samuel Curtis Johnson College of Business, who oversee the school’s elite business journals for finance and accounting, are embracing an alternative process for publishing research papers that requires research proposals to be approved beforehand.
- Under the new process, called “registered reports,” journal reviewers and editors will vet proposals based on research design, proposed data collection, inferences the researcher would draw, and ability to answer important questions about the topic. Scholars must then defend the proposal before the review committee and editors. If the proposal passes through the process, it guarantees the research paper will be published regardless of its findings.
- Professors Robert Broomfield and Andrew Karolyi believe the new system would enhance the integrity of the two publications by removing the incentive to sensationalize research outcomes in order to get published. The “registered reports” process also encourages researchers to be more ambitious in their data collection but it also places limits on a scholar’s ability to explore avenues that might emerge while research is in progress.
Dive Insight:
Established academic journals are considering new standards, like “registered reports,” for publishing research as the reliability and integrity of academic journals come under more scrutiny. The “open-access” journal movement began as a way to lower costs for researchers who could not afford to get their research published traditionally, but now, it has prompted concerns about the continuous publication of bogus or bad research. Some say journalists contribute to the problem by misrepresenting research in the media. However, research suggests that much misrepresentation stems comes from media and press offices of universities and other institutions who put out research.
Certainly, university culture plays a role. Vying for academic tenure, faculty are under considerable pressure to get published. While faculty contracts stipulate how much time should be spent on research and publishing, it’s common knowledge in academia that publishing papers and acquiring research dollars are the most valuable activities for moving up in higher education. Faculty who excel at research tend to get academic tenure even if it comes at the expense of students who don’t get the attention they need in the classroom. Universities also rely on publications to enhance their reputations.
All of this comes a time when the public’s faith in institutions, science and research is at an all time low, and when many institutions are shifting faculty workloads and re-evaluating productivity. As institutions try to figure out how faculty fit into the business model, research — and tenure and promotion — are often compromised.
