Spark Talk: Learning from Null Effects: A Bottom-Up Approach by Ala Alrababah (March 8, 2024)

Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/03/2024
10:30 am - 11:30 am

Description: A critical barrier to generating cumulative knowledge is the inability of researchers to observe the results from the full set of research designs. Studies that produce null findings are especially likely to be unobserved, creating biases in publicly accessible research. We call for the establishment of a new discipline-wide norm in which scholars post short “null results reports” online that summarize their research designs, findings, and interpretations. To address the inevitable incentive problems, we argue that decentralized research communities can spur the broader disciplinary norm change that would bring advantage to scientific advance. To facilitate our contribution, we offer a template for these reports.