Promoting an open research culture: Author guidelines for journals could help to promote transparency, openness, and reproducibility

Abstract

"This article discusses the promotion of an open research culture. Transparency, openness, and reproducibility are readily recognized as vital features of science. When asked, most scientists embrace these features as disciplinary norms and values. Therefore, one might expect that these valued features would be routine in daily practice. Yet, a growing body of evidence suggests that this is not the case. In the present reward system, emphasis on innovation may undermine practices that support verification. The situation is a classic collective action problem. Many individual researchers lack strong incentives to be more transparent, even though the credibility of science would benefit if everyone were more transparent. The journal article is central to the research communication process. Guidelines for authors define what aspects of the research process should be made available to the community to evaluate, critique, reuse, and extend. Scientists recognize the value of transparency, openness, and reproducibility. Improvement of journal policies can help those values become more evident in daily practice and ultimately improve the public trust in science, and science itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)"