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Department of Cognitive Science

Seminar Abstract

The broadest problem in science: Our publishing system.

Speaker : Associate Professor Alex Holcombe, School of Psychology, University of Sydney.
Date : 3rd of July 2012, 4:00PM until 5:30PM
Location : C5C498 - Palermo Room, Macquarie University.

In confronting our problematic publishing system, the open access movement has recently celebrated several victories. Although Australian funding agencies have lagged their peers in the UK, the US, and Europe, increasing numbers of researchers will be affected by the shifting expectations of research funders worldwide. The repercussions will extend beyond unfettered access to journal articles and create space for new ways of doing and publishing science. This should include some opportunities to address the file-drawer problem. Replications and failures to replicate are published very rarely in psychology. Yet replication is part of the foundation of science. We need a way to publish replications, and the system should be encouraging rather than discouraging replication studies. After discussing broader issues of the open access movement, I will describe two projects I am involved in to increase the number of replications performed and published. One is the website www.psychfiledrawer.org, another is a plan to start a new journal (together with Dan Simons) for replication studies about which I hope you'll give me some comments.