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Editorial
. 2019 Jan;9(1):e01141.
doi: 10.1002/brb3.1141. Epub 2018 Dec 2.

Improving transparency and scientific rigor in academic publishing

Eric M Prager  1 , Karen E Chambers  1 , Joshua L Plotkin  2 , David L McArthur  3 , Anita E Bandrowski  4 , Nidhi Bansal  1 , Maryann E Martone  4 , Hadley C Bergstrom  5 , Anton Bespalov  6   7 , Chris Graf  8
Affiliations
Editorial

Improving transparency and scientific rigor in academic publishing

Eric M Prager et al. Brain Behav. 2019 Jan.

Abstract

Progress in basic and clinical research is slowed when researchers fail to provide a complete and accurate report of how a study was designed, executed, and the results analyzed. Publishing rigorous scientific research involves a full description of the methods, materials, procedures, and outcomes. Investigators may fail to provide a complete description of how their study was designed and executed because they may not know how to accurately report the information or the mechanisms are not in place to facilitate transparent reporting. Here, we provide an overview of how authors can write manuscripts in a transparent and thorough manner. We introduce a set of reporting criteria that can be used for publishing, including recommendations on reporting the experimental design and statistical approaches. We also discuss how to accurately visualize the results and provide recommendations for peer reviewers to enhance rigor and transparency. Incorporating transparency practices into research manuscripts will significantly improve the reproducibility of the results by independent laboratories.

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Conflict of interest statement

Though objectivity of a researcher or group is assumed, conflicts of interest may exist and could be a potential source of bias. Conflicts of interest largely focus on financial conflicts (Als‐Nielsen, Chen, Gluud, & Kjaergard, 2003; Thompson, 1993), but they can also occur when an individual's personal interests are in conflict with professional obligations, including industrial relationships (Young, 2009). Conflicts, whether real or perceived, arise when one recognizes an interest as influencing an author's objectivity. This can occur when an author owns a patent, or has stock ownership, or is a member of a company, for example. All participants in a paper must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a real or perceived conflict of interest. When considering whether a conflict is present, one should ask whether a reasonable reader could feel misled or deceived. While beyond the scope of this article, the Committee on Publication Ethics offers a number of resources on conflicts of interest.

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