Questionable Research Practices in Experimental Communication Research: A Systematic Analysis From 1980 to 2013

Autor(en)

Jörg Matthes, Franziska Marquart, Brigitte Naderer, Florian Arendt, Desiree Schmuck, Karoline Adam

Abstrakt

Questionable research practices (QRPs) pose a major threat to any scientific discipline. This article analyzes QRPs with a content analysis of more than three decades of published experimental research in four flagship communication journals: Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and Media Psychology. Findings reveal indications of small and insufficiently justified sample sizes, a lack of reported effect sizes, an indiscriminate removal of cases and items, an increasing inflation of p-values directly below p <.05, and a rising share of verified (as opposed to falsified) hypotheses. Implications for authors, reviewers, and editors are discussed.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

Externe Organisation(en)

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Journal

Communication Methods & Measures

Band

9

Seiten

193-207

Anzahl der Seiten

15

ISSN

1931-2458

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2015.1096334

Publikationsdatum

2015

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

508009 Medienforschung, 508007 Kommunikationswissenschaft

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Communication

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/questionable-research-practices-in-experimental-communication-research-a-systematic-analysis-from-1980-to-2013(d6ac7eea-ad94-43f4-ad39-1b7642806153).html