Latest posts
Science mapping research on body image: A bibliometric review of publications in Body Image, 2004–2020
Research on Body Image has traditionally focused on the negative aspects; though more recently, more attention has been given to positive body image as well. What I found most interesting when I conducted this study, was the marked shift from TV in the mid 2000s, to...
Peer review and journal rejection – a painful reality!
In the past year, I have had the dubious pleasure of having some of my papers rejected by journals. It is draining. First, A LOT of time and emotional energy goes into each paper. I scrutinize it before submission, and really believe in it. Then I go though the...
Crazy Hotness diagram – scientifically tested
A few years ago, I discussed the concept of the Crazy-Hotness line, popularized on How I Met Your Mother, with some colleagues. We had fun with it. Today I saw an article that actually tested the intuition behind this fun idea... and also look at the counteridea, for...
How much confidence should we have in our own and others research findings?
Most authors have an inherent self-interest to present their findings in their research articles in the best possible light, sometimes at the expense of accurately stating the reliability of their findings. This can lead researchers to build on prior work that is not...
Applying for jobs.. the slog
Applying for an academic job is a little different from other jobs, especially in the amount of documentation some schools require. Academic CV’s are famously long. But then there are documents such as: research statement (2-6 pages) teaching statement diversity...
How to build a search in Web of Science
While it is fast and simple to conduct a basic search on Web of Science (WoS), to build a corpus for a bibliometric analysis, the search needs to be precise, with as many relevant articles as possible included, while excluding irrelevant ones, that will just create...
Mapping the literature on parents with mental illness, across psychiatric sub-disciplines: a bibliometric review
Research on parental mental illness is often carried out in disorder specific research silos. Drawing on the different research areas, it is possible to leverage and combine existing knowledge, and identify insights that can be transferred across research areas. In...
Meta-Analysis and incremental findings…The importance of being humble:
A meta-analysis was recently published in Journal of Applied Psychology... the conclusion is short and sweet, basically saying that the Honesty Humility dimension of the HEXACO model does not offer any incremental validity for predicting Organizational Citizenship...
When scientists are wrong..
Many studies and findings are questioned as a replications fail. When some are approached about possible weaknesses, like Amy Cuddy (and with her mentor Susan Fiske at her back), they fight tooth and nail. Others do it differently. A finding Dan Ariely has based part...
Replication vs. reproducibility
There is a distinction (not always observed by various authors) between Replication and reproducibility. Replication is re-running studies to confirm results. This means, collect own data, and get the same effect for your study. Reproducibility is the the ability to...
There are many ways to scientific fraud
An entertaining version of it was published ten years ago, by Neuroskeptic at: http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2010/11/9-circles-of-scientific-hell.html and since then, also as an article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691612459519 as both can be...
Tweet to increase our citation scores?
Citation scores are berated as being a poor predictor of article quality.. but still the best one available. Scholars are also often judged on citation scores. So the question of how to increase ones citation score is salient. The most important is of course to...
Advice through a PhD, from Oliver Williamson
We all know our PhD journey has been unique, special, just like the snowflakes we are. Reading the advice Oliver Williamson gave his phd students, makes me smile, it is advice I should have got during my journey. It would have been perfectly tailored to me. The essay,...
Effect size, statistical significance and big data
Many, if not most statistical methods were developed for relatively small datasets. Big Data means we need to reevaluate how we interpret results. A good examples comes from “the Facebook experiment” Emotional contagion through social networks Adam D. I. Kramer, Jamie...
The importance of stupidity in scientific research
I think the Lego Gradstudent is brilliant! Very dark humour, but ohh so funny, especially if and when you feel a little down during your PhD journey. The creator made a video about the "impostor syndrome", that many experience at times. To watch it: I recently read an...
A manifesto for reproducible science
There are ohh-so many ways to mess up when conducting research, leading either intentionally or unintentionally, to false results. Open science, where every effort is made to allow others to check your work (put very simply) is on the rise. Here is a great article on...
Free access to research articles
Academic research is contingent on building on past findings, much published in academic journals. While researchers get nothing from the journals when they submit their work (indeed, some pay for the privilege to get published), it can cost a fortune to access the...
Analysis of how integrated Eysenck’s articles, deemed “unsafe”, are with the rest of his published research
My second peer-reviewed publication, this time on Eysenck's body of research, where we both look at how it evolved, and how central the articles deemed as "unsafe" by his own college, is to the rest of his work. We also note how he continually renewed the pool of...
How to be a good reviewer
https://plos.org/resources/for-reviewers/
Creating model diagrams
While most make models in Word or Powerpoint, there are other alternatives, that can also be used with R. One such, is DAGitty, (and related packages). You can make the diagrams in a browser window, and export the R code. The diagrams can be exported in most high...