Meta-Research Center at Tilburg University
Meta-Research Center | |
---|---|
Established | 2012 |
Parent institution | Tilburg University |
Location | Tilburg, Netherlands |
Website |
metaresearch |
The Meta-Research Center at Tilburg University is a research center within the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Dutch Tilburg University.
Research
Meta-research aims to improve reproducibility by studying how science is practiced and published and developing better ways for the scientific community to operate.
The research institute has published a large statistical meta-analysis of studies on the effect of Stereotype threat on girls' mathematics performance. They also use methods for estimating publication bias.[1]
The research institute has developed an R based software tool that can detect incorrect statistical methods used in research articles. A large amount of statistical errors were detected in a sample of 50 000 psychology research articles.[2] The use of it was perceived negatively by some of the researchers.[3][4][5] The data mining practices of the research center have been in conflict with the policies of scientific publisher Elsevier.[6]
A scientific misconduct case in the field of social psychology at Tilburg University has been a contributing factor in establishing the research center.[3]
Advocacy
The research center makes recommendations for other researchers about how to avoid publication bias and to improve the statistical strength of results. They have stated support for pre-registration of studies and open sharing of research data.[4]
See also
Other meta-research centres
- Cochrane Collaboration
- Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS) (co-directors John Ioannidis and Steven N. Goodman)
- Center for Open Science (director Brian Nosek)
- Projet MiRoR Methods in Research on Research
- Centre for Journalology
- European Network for Knowledge Impact
References
- 1 2 Flore, Paulette C.; Wicherts, Jelte M. (2014). "Does stereotype threat influence performance of girls in stereotyped domains? A meta-analysis". Journal of School Psychology. 53 (1): 25–44. ISSN 0022-4405. PMID 25636259. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2014.10.002.
- ↑ Nuijten, Michèle B.; Hartgerink, Chris H. J.; Van Assen, Marcel A. L. M.; Epskamp, Sacha; Wicherts, Jelte M. (2015). "The prevalence of statistical reporting errors in psychology (1985–2013)". Behavior Research Methods. 48 (4): 1205. PMID 26497820. doi:10.3758/s13428-015-0664-2.
- 1 2 Buranyi, Stephen (2017-02-01). "The high-tech war on science fraud". the Guardian. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
- 1 2 Monya Baker (2015-10-28). "Smart software spots statistical errors in psychology papers". Nature News & Comment. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
- ↑ Buranyi, Stephen (2016-09-05). "Scientists Are Worried About 'Peer Review by Algorithm’ - Motherboard". motherboard.vice.com. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
- ↑ Jozien Wijkhuis (2015-11-23). "PhD student stops research because of Elsevier conflict | Univers". Univers. The Independent News Website of Tilburg University. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
External links
- "Meta-Research Center". Meta-Research Center. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences