In our new new paper, we outline plans for doing a study which should tell us whether doctors and agonist patients accept psychological interventions as means of curbing alcohol in primary care; it should also tell us whether we can do more research on this topic in Ireland. Access the full protocol here http://www.researchprotocols.org/2013/2/e26/
For some people, publishing research protocols is not fun because of two reasons:
- everybody knows what you’re doing
- you have to do what you said – everybody knows now.
However tough for researchers, these two reasons make publicly available research protocols the best way to achieve transparency in research. Transparent research is in line with ethical principles of research conduct and makes an honorable contribution to the scientific knowledge – to the honor pot. Together with accountability, it should be the core pillar of scientific discovery.
If these safeguards fail, we may see more instances of academic fraud and data falsification, such as Diederik Stapels’. The social psychology community has been embarassed by the revelation that Diederik Stapels made up the data for his papers. The NY Times link provides a detailed analysis of the Stapels and his academic fraud.