Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
DOI
10.1002/job.2623
Publication Title
Journal of Organizational Behavior
Volume
43
Issue
7
Pages
1190-1208
Abstract
Questionable research practices (QRPs) among researchers have been a source of concern in many fields of study. QRPs are often used to enhance the probability of achieving statistical significance which affects the likelihood of a paper being published. Using a sample of researchers from ten top research-productive management programs, we compared hypotheses tested in dissertations to those tested in journal articles derived from those dissertations to draw inferences concerning the extent of engagement in QRPs. Results indicated that QRPs related to changes in sample size and covariates were associated with unsupported dissertation hypotheses becoming supported in journal articles. Researchers also tended to exclude unsupported dissertation hypotheses from journal articles. Likewise, results suggested that many article hypotheses may have been created after the results were known (i.e., HARKed). Articles from prestigious journals contained a higher percentage of potentially HARKed hypotheses than those from less well-regarded journals. Finally, articles published in prestigious journals were associated with more QRP usage than less prestigious journals. QRPs increase in the percentage of supported hypotheses and effect sizes that likely result in overestimated population parameters. As such, results reported in articles published in our most prestigious journals may be less credible than previously believed.
ORCID
0000-0003-3083-2425 (Keener)
Original Publication Citation
Kepes, S., Keener, S. K., McDaniel, M. A., & Hartman, N. S. (2022). Questionable research practices among researchers in the most research‐productive management programs. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 43(7),1190-1208. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2623
Repository Citation
Kepes, Sven; Keener, Sheila K.; McDaniel, Michael A.; and Hartman, Nathan S., "Questionable Research Practices Among Researchers in the Most Research-Productive Management Programs" (2022). Management Faculty Publications. 47.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/management_fac_pubs/47
Included in
Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons
Comments
© 2022 The Authors.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.