Open Science and Improving Credibility of Sociological Research (Session Endorsed by the European Academy of Sociology)
Open Science and Improving Credibility of Sociological Research (Session Endorsed by the European Academy of Sociology)
Thursday, 10 July 2025: 15:00-16:45
Location: FSE024 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
RC45 Rational Choice (host committee) Language: English
Making sociology an open science with agreed upon standards for reproducibility and credibility is arguably a collective action problem. This session, organised in association with the European Academy of Sociology, invites contributions that explore methods to enhance the reproducibility and credibility of sociological or social science research. Key questions include: How much do papers withstand robustness checks? What conditions promote reproducibility? What are the risk factors for low reproducibility and robustness? How does theory building affect credibility of sociological research and empirical findings?
We welcome presentations of reproducibility audits, replication studies or theoretical contributions that investigate reproducibility and credibility in sociology and other social sciences. Contributions on practical journal policies are also welcome. For instance, is requiring open materials sufficient for high reproducibility rates, or is the presence of data editors reviewing code also necessary? Is it necessary to require pre-registration of hypotheses or analysis protocols before analysing data in experimental or observational research? Is it enough to review the code for reproducibility, or should institutions or the community also check for common coding errors or suspicious practices such as unjustified data removal (discarding outliers or experimental subjects), p-hacking, and pre-registration hacking (pre-registering and running many studies and publishing only those that match the pre-registered report)?
Session Organizer:
Chair:
Oral Presentations