Abstract
AbstractThe current publication system neither incentivizes publishing null results nor direct replication attempts, which biases the scientific record toward novel findings that appear to support presented hypotheses (referred to as “publication bias”). Moreover, flexibility in data collection, measurement, and analysis (referred to as “researcher degrees of freedom”) can lead to overconfident beliefs in the robustness of a statistical relationship. One way to systematically decrease publication bias and researcher degrees of freedom is preregistration. A preregistration is a time-stamped document that specifies how data is to be collected, measured, and analyzed prior to data collection. While preregistration is a powerful tool to reduce bias, it comes with certain challenges and limitations which have to be evaluated for each scientific discipline individually. This paper discusses the application, challenges and limitations of preregistration for experimental linguistic research.
Highlights
In recent coordinated efforts to replicate published findings, the social sciences have uncovered surprisingly low replication rates (e.g., Camerer et al 2018; Open Science Collaboration 2015)
While preregistration is a powerful tool to reduce bias, it comes with certain challenges and limitations which have to be evaluated for each scientific discipline individually
There are raising concerns that a similar state of affairs is true for the field of experimental linguistics because it shares with other disciplines many research practices that have been identified to decrease the replicability of published findings (e.g., Marsden et al 2018a; Roettger and Baer-Henney 2019; Sönning and Werner this issue)
Summary
In recent coordinated efforts to replicate published findings, the social sciences have uncovered surprisingly low replication rates (e.g., Camerer et al 2018; Open Science Collaboration 2015) This discovery has led to what is referred to as the “replication crisis” in science. The use of the label “crisis” in the expression “replication crisis” suggests a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or even danger It might, be more fruitful to think of the current situation as an opportunity. The present paper discusses a concept that marks a promising way forward in increasing the replicability of experimental linguistic research: preregistration. I think it is worth to reiterate applications, challenges, and limitations of preregistration for experimental linguistics at large
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