New journal launched to remedy publication bias
As of Tuesday 28th February 2017, a new and innovative health psychology journal may change the landscape of publishing scientific results. This open access bulletin will aim to remedy the publication bias that troubles psychological science. Most traditional journals aim to publish findings that are considered novel or ‘of outstanding scientific importance’. As a consequence, replications and null findings are rarely published. Health Psychology Bulletin explicitly welcomes null findings, reports of failed manipulation, replications, as well as regular contributions. This way it strives to maximize the potential lessons that can be learned, fostering a shift from a competitive to a collaborative model of science.
Health Psychology Bulletin (HPB) is an initiative of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) and community oriented open access publisher Ubiquity Press (UP). By launching this journal, the EHPS and UP hope to ultimately contribute to better mental and physical health all over the world. The journal will have a full disclosure policy, strongly recommending authors to make public not only their data, but also everything other researchers need to replicate their study and analyses.
Ethical responsibility
HPB aims to publish all research, based on the view that once data have been collected from participants, it is the ethical responsibility of the scientific community to publish those data. Therefore, HPB will even publish flawed studies, provided that the flaws are clearly explained and the conclusions that are drawn are consistent with the data.
Transparent, honest and integer
For all research, HPB papers will frankly discuss what went wrong and which changes were made along the way. The journal will focus on the lessons that can be learned instead of selling a study, design, or specific findings. This radically different policy means that HPB will strive to realise a shift from the traditional, competitive model of science to a more collaborative model, where research papers become transparent, honest, and integer documentations of a scientific endeavour.
About the Editors in Chief
Editors in Chief are Gerjo Kok and Gjalt-Jorn Peters. They are supported by an expert, international Editorial Board. Gerjo Kok is professor of applied psychology at Maastricht University. His research focuses on applying psychological theories to behaviour change to reduce societal problems and on planning models for behaviour change interventions for health promotion and disease prevention, energy conservation, traffic safety, and discrimination. Gjalt-Jorn Peters is health psychologist at the Dutch Open University. His research focuses on methodology, statistics and ethics of health psychology research, behaviour change in general, and nightlife-related health.
Follow @HealthPsychBull on Twitter, or visit Health Psychology Bulletin online for general information.
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