Professor Roger Giner-Sorolla, University of Kent

Promoting Openness in Peer Review: What Works as Policy

If the statistical and scientific reporting culture of psychology is to be changed, standards for publication at journals represent one of the most effective ways to enforce and encourage change. I will describe and analyse the changes I have overseen over the past three years at Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (JESP), comparing these to other highly regarded psychology journals. Two themes run throughout my talk: 1. Coordination of change is a problem beyond the grasp of any single editor, and yet changes, even if decreed at a macro level, are only possible through active decisions of editors; 2. It is beyond the grasp of the current research evaluation establishment to protect against brazen fraud, but a more achievable goal is to embrace standards that stop researchers deceiving themselves.