By Jan Leighley, AJPS Interim Lead Editor
After nine months of referring to the AJPS “replication policy,” or (in writing) “replication/verification” policy, I finally had to admit it was time for a change. As lead editor, I had been invited to various panels and workshops where I noticed that the terms “replication”, “verification”, and “reproducibility” were often used interchangeably (sometimes less awkwardly than others), and others where there were intense discussions about what each term meant or required.
Spoiler Alert: I have no intention, in the context of this post, with 10 days left in the editorial term, to even begin to clarify the distinctions between reproducibility, replicability, and verifiability—and how these terms apply to data and materials, in both qualitative and quantitative methods.
A bit of digging in the (surprisingly shallow) archives suggested that “replication” and “verification” had often been used interchangeably (if not redundantly) at AJPS. Not surprising, given the diversity of approaches and terminology used in the natural and social sciences more broadly (See “Terminologies for Reproducible Research” at arXiv.org). But in a 2017 Inside Higher Education article, “Should Journals Be Responsible for Reproducibility?”, former editor Bill Jacoby mentioned that the AJPS “Replication and Verification Policy” terminology would soon be adjusted to be consistent that of the National Science Foundation. From the article: “Replication is using the same processes and methodology with new data to produce similar results, while reproducibility is using the same processes and methodology on the same dataset to produce identical results.”
It made sense to me that a change in names had been in the making, in part due to the important role of the AJPS as a leader in the discipline, social sciences, and possibly natural sciences on issues of transparency and reproducibility in scientific research. While I had no plans as interim editor to address this issue, the publication of the journal’s first paper relying on (verified) qualitative research methods required that the editorial team review the policy and its procedures. That review led to a consideration of the similarities and differences in verifying quantitative and qualitative papers for publication in the AJPS—and my decision to finally make the name change “legal” after all this time: the “AJPS Replication & Verification Policy” that we all know and love will now move forward in name officially as the “AJPS Verification Policy“.
This name change reflects my observation that what we are doing at AJPS currently is verifying what is reported in the papers that we publish, though what we verify differs for qualitative and quantitative approaches. In neither case do we replicate the research of our authors.
Do note that the goals and procedures that we have used to verify the papers we publish will essentially remain the same, subject only to the routine types of changes made as we learn how to improve the process, or with the kind of adjustments that come with changes of editorial teams. Since the policy was announced in March 2015, The Odum Institute has used the data and materials posted on the AJPS Dataverse to verify the analyses of 195 papers relying on quantitative analyses.
Our experience in verifying qualitative analyses, in contrast, is limited at this point to only one paper, one that the Qualitative Data Repository verified early this spring, although several others are currently under review. As in the case of quantitative papers, the basic procedures and guidelines for verification of qualitative papers have been posted online for several years. We will continue to develop appropriate verification procedures, as we build on our limited experience thus far, and respond to the complexity and heterogeneity of qualitative research methods. Authors of accepted papers (or those who are curious about verification procedures) should check out the guidelines and checklists posted at www.ajps.org to learn more.
For those who care about graphics more than terminology (!), I note that a few changes have been made to the badges awarded to verified articles. I’ve never been a badge person myself, but apparently this is the currency of the realm in open science circles, and some research suggests that by awarding these badges, researchers are more likely to follow “open science” practices in their work. AJPS is proud to have our authors’ papers sport these symbols of high standards of transparency in the research process on our Dataverse page and on our published papers. Our badge updates include the addition of the words “peer review” to reflect that our verification policy relies on external reviewers (i.e., Odum, QDR) to document verifiability rather than doing it in-house, the most distinctive aspect of the AJPS Verification Policy. It also includes a new “Protected Access” badge that will signify the verification of data that is available only through application to a protected repository, as identified by the Center for Open Science. As new papers are accepted for publication, you will begin to see more of the new badges, along with revised language that reflects more precisely what those badges represent.
Cheers to replication, verification—and the end of the editorial term!
Jan (Sarah, Mary, Jen, Layna and Rocio)
Citation:
Jacoby, William G., Sophia Lafferty-Hess, Thu-Mai Christian. 2017. “Should Journals Be Responsible for Reproducibility?” Inside Higher Education [blog], July 17.
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