Validating new knowledge and the role of peer review Flashcards
What is a psychology journal?
- A psychological journal is a collection of recent psychological studies
- Journals tend to be published quarterly (4 times a year)
- Before conducting research psychologists will read may psychological journals to find out about the past research that has already been conducted on the topic (this research will be addressed in the introduction section of the report).
- Psychological journals aim to advance and disseminate psychological knowledge.
There are many different psychological journals in Britain:
- British Journal of Psychology
- British Journal of clinical psychology
- British Journal of Developmental psychology
- British Journal of Educational psychology
- British Journal of health psychology
- British Journal of social psychology
- British Journal of mathematical and statistical psychology
- Psychology and psychotherapy: Theory , Research and practice
- Journal of occupational and organizational psychology
- Legal and criminological psychology
- Journal of neuropsychology
In addition to journals that publish research of a particular country in the language of that country, there are international and regional psychology journals too.
What is meant by the term peer review?
Peer review is the process by which psychological research papers, before publication in a journal, are subjected to independent scrutiny by other psychologists working in a similar field who consider the research in terms of its validity, significance and originality.
What is the purpose of peer review?
THE PURPOSE OF PEER REVIEW IS TO ENSURE THAT ONLY HIGH QUALITY PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH IS PUBLISHED AND IS IN TTHE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
When we read the research that is published in journals how do we know if it is valid? How do we know that the research has been done well or that the results have been analysed appropriately? What are the quality control mechanisms that regulate the introduction of new knowledge? The answer is the system of peer review.
How is peer review used to validate new knowledge?
1
Psychologists who want to publish research send their report manuscript to a journal
How is peer review used to validate new knowledge?
2
The editor of the journal examines the topic of the manuscript and sends copies to other psychologists who are experts in that topic. These expert act as the peer reviewers.
How is peer review used to validate new knowledge?
3
The peer reviewers read the manuscript carefully and assess all aspect of it.
How is peer review used to validate new knowledge?
4
They then send it back to the editor with comments and a recommendation about its suitability for publication.
How is peer review used to validate new knowledge?
5
Using these reports, the editors then has to decide whether the research should be accepted for publication, whether it should be revised or whether it should be rejected.
Why is peer review important in psychological research?
Peer review is an important part of this process because it provides a way of checking the validity of the research, making a judgement about the credibility of the research and assessing the quality and appropriateness of the design and methodology.
Peers are also in a position to judge the importance or significance of the research in a wider context. They can also assess how original the work is and whether it refers to relevant research by other psychologists.
They can then make a recommendation as to whether the research paper should be published in its original form, rejected or revised in some way.
- Peer review acts as a control mechanism that weeds out poorer research and allows only the best to become public.
- Peer review is central to the process by which science is conducted and central to validating new knowledge.
- However, it is not without its drawbacks.
The limitations of peer review
- Problems of validation
- Consistency with previous knowledge
- Bias in peer review
- File-drawer’ phenomenon
Problems of validation
-In a very small number of cases peer review has failed to detect fraudulent research including fabrication (where data is made up), falsification (where data exists but has been altered) and plagiarism (where work has been copied from others)
Consistency with previous knowledge
- Most findings build on previous knowledge or theory
- Research that does not ‘fit’ with previous work is often seen as suspect and can be rejected.
Bias in peer review
- Peer review is subject to bias.
- There are a number of ways that the review may be biased, for instance if the reviewer’s theoretical view is different from that in the manuscript (for example, if the reviewer is convinced that intelligence has a strong genetic component they might not look favourably on research that suggests that it is largely the result of upbringing).
- In addition, there is evidence of both ‘institution bias’ (the tendency to favour research from prestigious institutions) and gender bias (the tendency to favour male researchers).
- Additionally, many philosophers of science suggest it is impossible to separate research from cultural, political or personal values.
If the author and the reviewer share these values then they may be published as objective science e.g. Bowlby’s on maternal deprivation was later seen to reflect the cultural values and politics of the post-war period and his emphasis on separation from mothers rather than parents was questioned.
File-Drawer’ Phenomenon
- Peer review tends to favour positive results (i.e. ones where the results support the hypothesis).
- For this reason many negative findings (i.e. ones when the null hypothesis has been accepted) are either not published or are ignored. If ten negative findings are overlooked whilst one positive finding is published our understanding of a topic is distorted.
