Questionable Research Practices in Single-Case Experimental Designs: Examples and Possible Solutions

Questionable research practices (QRPs) are a variety of research choices that introduce bias into the body of scientific literature. Researchers have documented widespread presence of QRPs across disciplines and promoted practices aimed at preventing them. More recently, Single-Case Experimental Design (SCED) researchers have explored how QRPs could manifest in SCED research. In the chapter, we describe QRPs in participant selection, independent variable selection, procedural fidelity documentation, graphical depictions of behavior, and effect size measures and statistics. We also discuss QRPs in relation to the file drawer effect, publication bias, and meta-analyses of SCED research. We provide recommendations for researchers and the research community to promote practices for preventing QRPs in SCED.

High-risk human-caused pathogen exposure events from 1975-2016

Biological agents and infectious pathogens have the potential to cause very significant harm, as the natural occurrence of disease and pandemics makes clear. As a way to better understand the risk of Global Catastrophic Biological Risks due to human activities, rather than natural sources, this paper reports on a dataset of 71 incidents involving either accidental or purposeful exposure to, or infection by, a highly infectious pathogenic agent. There has been significant effort put into both reducing the risk of purposeful spread of biological weapons, and biosafety intended to prevent the exposure to, or release of, dangerous pathogens in the course of research. Despite these efforts, there are incidents of various types that could potentially be controlled or eliminated by different lab and/or bioweapon research choices and safety procedures. The dataset of events presented here was compiled during a project conducted in 2019 to better understand biological risks from anthropic sources. The events which are listed are unrelated to clinical treatment of naturally occurring outbreaks, and are instead entirely the result of human decisions and mistakes. While the events cover a wide range of cases, the criteria used covers a variety of events previously scattered across academic, policy, and other unpublished or not generally available sources.

What is the Eisenhardt Method, really?

This essay sharpens and refreshes the multi-case theory-building approach, sometimes termed The “Eisenhardt Method.” The Method’s singular aim is theory building, especially with multiple cases and theoretical logic. Its defining features (e.g. research questions without obvious answers, careful case selection, well-identified constructs and relationships, theoretical arguments, boundary conditions) reflect this aim. I begin with the influence of the 1980s, including grounded theorizing and case logic. Relying on exemplars, I illustrate the Method’s defining features. I also address common misconceptions (e.g. types of data, number of cases, performance emphasis). These miss the Method’s essence and imply a rigid template that does not exist. Instead, the Method’s relatively few defining features enable a wide variety of research possibilities. I conclude with what I would write today like a richer palette of research choices, more emphasis on time, and flexible philosophy of science. Yet the core message of theory building would remain.

Winding Paths of Scientific Careers

The paper covers studies of initial stages of scientists’ career paths in a crisis and/or moderni­zed society. The major focus is made on the following topics: impact of a crisis situation and/or a modernized society on any individual’s choice of the career and influence of personal protected space parameters on scientist’s career development. The studies include three thematic clusters: 1. Careers of natural scientists in the period of development of the profession of a scientist (in the context of England of the second half of the 17th century). The biographies of R. Boyle and R. Hooke were selected as references. 2. The career of a Russian scientist in 18–19th centuries. The biographies of M.V. Lomonosov and D.I. Mendeleev were selected as references. 3. German scientists during the Third Reich: creative activities and career development. The biography of P. Debye was selected as a reference. The presented historical examples along with an extensive array of sources (including archives) demonstrate that despite any individual differences in the career paths of the scientists living in the crisis and/or modernized societies in different countries and eras, the personal determinants of their career paths are in a certain way similar, namely: — the ability to distance oneself from other people (at least mentally); — the ability to represent one’s professional distinctiveness and irreplaceability; — the ability to make thematic research choices that are scientifically, career-wise, and socially successful; — the ability to stand up for personal scientific and life interests and priorities (even at the expense of generally accepted moral norms); — the ability to resort to protectionist resources and, if necessary, political rhetoric and dema­gogy with the purpose to carry out scientific works.

Navigating the Valley of Death: Perceptions of Industry and Academia on Production Platforms and Opportunities

Rational lifestyle engineering using computational methods and synthetic biology has made it possible to genetically improve industrial performance of microbial cell factories for the production of a range of biobased chemicals. However, only an estimated 1 in 5,000 to 10,000 innovations make it through the Valley of Death to market implementation.To gain in-depth insights into the views of industry and academia on key bottlenecks and opportunities to reach market implementation, a qualitative and exploratory study was performed by conducting 12 in depth interviews with 8 industrial and 4 academic participants. The characteristics that any cell factory must have were schematically listed, and commonly recognised opportunities were identified.We found that academics are limited by only technical factors in their research, while industry is restricted in their research choices and flexibility by a series of technical, sector dependent and social factors. This leads to a misalignment of interest of academics and funding industrial partners, often resulting in miscommunication. Although both are of the opinion that academia must perform curiosity-driven research to find innovative solutions, there is a certain pressure to aim for short-term industrial applications. All these factors add up to the Valley of Death; the gap between development and market implementation.A third party, in the form of start-up companies, could be the answer to bridging the Valley of Death.

Research Design

Chapter 2 demystifies practices of ethnographic research by discussing the balance between structure and serendipity surrounding its design. The author pursues this in two ways: first, by discussing the dynamic mode of structured improvisation through which ethnographers perform their research and, second, by introducing a framework for ethnographic decision-making—based on the concept of social science sampling—which highlights many of the major considerations affecting the research choices ethnographers make. Through this discussion, the author illustrates the complementary strategic and improvisational imperatives that in-the-field ethnographers embody. The second part of the chapter is organized around several key phases of the research process including (a) the choice of a research topic; (b) decisions regarding research settings; (c) aspects of data collection—including expanding on the first chapter’s discussions of positionality, fieldnote writing, and interviewing; and (d) techniques and sensibilities through which researchers analyze their data.

Challenging the Gendered Academic Hierarchy

In my 2017 Sherif Award address, I pay tribute to Carolyn Wood Sherif for her insightful exposure of an academic hierarchy in psychology and her call to be skeptical not only of our research choices but also of our career choices. I contend that the artificial separation of research/scholarship and teaching/mentoring, along with the masculinization and privileging of the former over the latter, contributes to perpetuating this gendered academic hierarchy. I suggest three possibilities for integrating teaching and research, embedded within one’s commitment to feminist activism, by (a) publishing about one’s own teaching, (b) researching one’s teaching effectiveness, and (c) using one’s classes to do research that contributes to feminist scholarship (as well as, in a fourth example, challenging the academic hierarchy itself). My immodest goal is to inspire junior and senior academic feminists to practice a “subversive” feminism that challenges the gendered, hierarchical academic institutions in which we are immersed as feminists “doing” (i.e., socially constructing) both teaching and research.

Research Choices: Time for Europe to Decide

Taking real advantage of Europe's excellence in research to improve citizens' lives presents challenges that Europe's policymakers have not yet fully met. The EU has shown some clarity of assessment in recognising the needs, and some laudable determination to improve the situation, and it has intermittently taken some real steps to deliver on its ambitions to turn its research into valuable innovations. But Europe still faces harsh choices about whether it is actually going to do what it has so often discussed. The EU has to make some firm decisions about what research deserves support - and where. It must turn words into deeds to promote effective links between research and innovation. That requires a sharper focus on developing and retaining the right skill sets in Europe, on funding innovation, on creating an encouraging regulatory environment, and on building greater public understanding and engagement. Here, among other issues, the authors discuss where resources should be deployed, how to maximise the potential of personalised medicine, the time it takes for search to be turned into products ready for market, education, and the EU's regulatory role.

Cultural and Communication Barriers to Interdisciplinary Research

This chapter examines the cultural and communicative challenges of interdisciplinary research. The author argues that to understand the nature and scope of cultural and communicative barriers to interdisciplinary research, we must focus on the link between the philosophy of science and research philosophy which shape how scholars frame empirical inquiries, determine interesting research questions, and define the choice of research methodologies and methods. The chapter examined the cultural and communicative challenges of interdisciplinary research through the philosophical perspectives of philosophy of science and research philosophy. It distinguished between main research choices: deductive and inductive and their relevance to the cultural and communicative challenges of interdisciplinary research. It also explains the epistemological, ontological and axiological positions of research and its role in understanding the cultural and communicative challenges of interdisciplinary research. It discusses how scholars are socialized into a scholarly tradition, and how scholarly tradition is perpetuated. It outlined the assumptions of contending scientific methods and how they hinder interdisciplinary research with implications for global health information and communication programs. The chapter demonstrates why it is important for global health information and communication scholars to examine and contrast the opposing scientific research paradigms with associated competing knowledge claims since each offered a different way of understanding how research should be done.

MANAJEMEN PENGELOLAAN HARTA KEKAYAAN PADA PENGUSAHA MUSLIM DI MARTAPURA PERSPEKTIF EKONOMI SYARIAH

Wealth management in moslem’s enterprenuer at Martapura is an orientation of this research. Besed on wealth management concept, the researcher try to explore how is their the wealth management concept so that their wealth bring blessings. The aim of this research to gire more explanation related on wealth management concept that done by moslem’s enterprenuer at Martapura. This research is a field research. Because of this research choices Martapura Kabupaten Banjar, so for reveling the problem, research apply sosiologic normative approach. in revaling and analyze the problem, research apply qualitative description opproach. So will found the answer from real condition that happened in the field. A series of those process make a description that thereaded (concatenated description) so easy to understand. The cunclosion of this research is moslem’s enterprenuer at Martapura have wealth management concept the oriented to Allah SWT’s blessings. So the steep and management schemesthat they did in eccordance with syari’s laws. But in orther side, there are several things that need to be anhanched aspecially, related to the management of incoe rest. They have preference in using to distribute directty better to allocated their fund in long term investment. So concept “Falah” in syariah economic understanding can be reached.Keywords : Management, Wealth, Moslem’s, Enterprenuers.