Abstract
Recent research in psychology has highlighted a number of replication problems in the discipline, with publication bias – the preference for publishing original and positive results, and a resistance to publishing negative results and replications- identified as one reason for replication failure. However, little empirical research exists to demonstrate that journals explicitly refuse to publish replications. We reviewed the instructions to authors and the published aims of 1151 psychology journals and examined whether they indicated that replications were permitted and accepted. We also examined whether journal practices differed across branches of the discipline, and whether editorial practices differed between low and high impact journals. Thirty three journals (3%) stated in their aims or instructions to authors that they accepted replications. There was no difference between high and low impact journals. The implications of these findings for psychology are discussed.
Highlights
The recent ability, or inability, of psychology to replicate novel or well-known, classic findings in the discipline has led to the controversial, but by no means generally accepted, conclusion that psychology is undergoing a “replication crisis” (Pashler and Harris, 2012; Pashler and Wagenmakers, 2012; Laws, 2013; American Psychological Society, 2015; Earp and Trafimow, 2015; Maxwell et al, 2015)
In order to provide an objective analysis of journal and editors’ explicit guidance to authors regarding the value and acceptance of replication studies, we examined psychology and psychologyrelated journals’ instructions to authors and journal aims and scope to determine whether (i) journals accepted, discouraged or prohibited the submission of replications, (ii) acceptance of replications differed by branch of the discipline, (iii) whether journals with a high impact factor differed from those with a low impact factor
When the journals were examined for the specific wording they used in their aims and instructions, we were able to identify four broad types of publication: (1) Journals which stated that they accepted replications; (2) Journals which did not state they accepted replications but did not discourage replications either; (3) Journals which implicitly discouraged replications through the use of emphasis on the scientific originality of submissions, and (4) Journals which actively discouraged replications by stating explicitly that they did not accept replications for publication
Summary
The recent ability, or inability, of psychology to replicate novel or well-known, classic findings in the discipline has led to the controversial, but by no means generally accepted, conclusion that psychology is undergoing a “replication crisis” (Pashler and Harris, 2012; Pashler and Wagenmakers, 2012; Laws, 2013; American Psychological Society, 2015; Earp and Trafimow, 2015; Maxwell et al, 2015). The reported crisis seems to be twofold: (1) the discipline has bemoaned a historical failure to publish negative results (which may arise from failed replications), and a preference for the publication of positive results, the so-called publication bias, and (2) when these replications occur, they are unlikely to support the original studies. Klein et al (2014), for example, reporting the first of the Many Labs projects hosted by the Open Science Foundation, found a reasonably good rate of replication attempts: Of 13 replication attempts of classic and contemporary findings in social and cognitive psychology using 36 samples comprising 6344 participants, 10 were successful, 1 was weakly replicated and 2 sets of findings
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