Most scientific research is conducted by small teams of investigators who together formulate hypotheses, collect data, conduct analyses, and report novel findings. These teams operate independently as vertically integrated silos. Here we argue that scientific research that is horizontally distributed can provide substantial complementary value, aiming to maximize available resources, promote inclusiveness and transparency, and increase rigor and reliability. This alternative approach enables researchers to tackle ambitious projects that would not be possible under the standard model. Crowdsourced scientific initiatives vary in the degree of communication between project members from largely independent work curated by a coordination team to crowd collaboration on shared activities. The potential benefits and challenges of large-scale collaboration span the entire research process: ideation, study design, data collection, data analysis, reporting, and peer review. Complementing traditional small science with crowdsourced approaches can accelerate the progress of science and improve the quality of scientific research.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1745691619850561

Scientific Utopia III: Crowdsourcing Science.

markdownSocial influence is the corner stone of consumer psychology. In fact, in the last decade of the 19th century the study of consumer psychology emerged from an interest in advertising and its influence on people. Traditionally research on social influence has focused on understanding how people respond to influence attempts and how social influence emerges. This dissertation challenges common methodological conventions used to study social influence in consumer behavior and, more broadly, social psychology. 

The first part of this dissertation moves beyond the study of social influence in a single dyadic relationship, and investigated how one dyadic relationship influences another. Here, influence attempts by one agent (e.g., a company) on another (e.g., a review writer) are shown to not only influence the cognitions of the agent being influenced, but also their ability to influence others (e.g., review readers) in turn. The second part of this work investigates how the widespread use of 2-cell instead of 3-cell experimental designs in social power research limits understanding of both the powerful and powerless. The pervasive practice of contrasting high power to either a low power or a control condition is found to weaken construct validity and inflate the size of effects attributed to high power. In contrast, using 3-cell experimental designs facilitate theoretical advancement by enabling the identification of curvilinear effects. 

The findings in this dissertation highlight the need for scholars in consumer behavior, and social psychologists more broadly, to question common methodological conventions used to study social influence. Overall, this research suggests that doing so may not only increase methodological rigor and confidence in subsequently observed effects, but may also lead to novel theoretical insights.

/pdf/influencers-the-role-of-social-influence-in-marketing-25ki8ibu3v.pdf

Influencers :The Role of Social Influence in Marketing

Data from preclinical research have been suggested to suffer from a lack of inherent reproducibility across laboratories. The goal of our study was to replicate findings from a previous report that demonstrated positive effects of Meteorin, a novel neurotrophic factor, in a rat model of neuropathic pain induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI). Notably, 5 to 6 intermittent subcutaneous (s.c.) injections of Meteorin had been reported to produce reversal of mechanical allodynia/thermal hyperalgesia after injury, wherein maximum efficacy of Meteorin was reached slowly and outlasted the elimination of the compound from the blood by several weeks. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of Meteorin in reversing hindpaw mechanical hyperalgesia and cold allodynia in male, Sprague-Dawley rats with CCI. Nociceptive behavior was monitored before and after CCI, and after drug treatment until day 42 after injury. Systemic administration of recombinant mouse Meteorin (0.5 and 1.8 mg/kg, s.c.) at days 10, 12, 14, 17, and 19 after CCI produced a prolonged reversal of neuropathic hypersensitivity with efficacy comparable with that obtained with gabapentin (100 mg/kg, orally). Despite some protocol deviations (eg, nociceptive endpoint, animal vendor, testing laboratory, investigator, etc.) being incurred, these did not affect study outcome. By paying careful attention to key facets of study design, using bioactive material, and confirming drug exposure, the current data have replicated the salient findings of the previous study, promoting confidence in further advancement of this novel molecule as a potential therapy for neuropathic pain.

Antihyperalgesic effects of Meteorin in the rat chronic constriction injury model: a replication study

Introduction
Our objective was to examine the association between fetal growth in early pregnancy and risk of severe large-for-gestational-age (LGA) and macrosomia at birth in a low-risk population.

Material and methods
Cohort study that included 68 771 women with non-anomalous singleton pregnancies, without history of diabetes or hypertension, based on an electronic database on pregnancies and deliveries in Stockholm–Gotland Region, Sweden, 2008–2014. We performed multivariable logistic regression to estimate the association between accelerated fetal growth occurring in the first through early second trimester as measured by ultrasound and LGA and macrosomia at birth. Restricted analyses were performed in the groups without gestational diabetes and with normal body mass index (18.5–24.9 kg/m2).

Results
When adjusting for confounders, the odds of having a severely LGA or macrosomic infant were elevated in mothers with fetuses that were at least 7 days larger than expected as compared with mothers without age discrepancy at the second-trimester scan (adjusted odds ratio 1.80; 95% CI 1.23–2.64 and adjusted odds ratio 2.15; 95% CI 1.55–2.98, respectively). Additionally, mothers without gestational diabetes and mothers with normal weight had an elevated risk of having a severely LGA or macrosomic infant when the age discrepancy by second-trimester ultrasound was at least 7 days.

Conclusions
In a low-risk population, ultrasound-estimated accelerated fetal growth in early pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of having a severely LGA or macrosomic infant.

Accelerated fetal growth in early pregnancy and risk of severe large-for-gestational-age and macrosomic infant: a cohort study in a low-risk population

Researchers agree that replicability and reproducibility are key aspects of science. A collection of Data Descriptors published in Scientific Data presents data obtained in the process of attempting to replicate previously published research. These new replication data describe published and unpublished projects. The different papers in this collection highlight the many ways that scientific replications can be conducted, and they reveal the benefits and challenges of crucial replication research. The organizers of this collection encourage scientists to reuse the data contained in the collection for their own work, and also believe that these replication examples can serve as educational resources for students, early-career researchers, and experienced scientists alike who are interested in learning more about the process of replication.

Replication data collection highlights value in diversity of replication attempts.

We present the data from a crowdsourced project seeking to replicate findings in independent laboratories before (rather than after) they are published. In this Pre-Publication Independent Replication (PPIR) initiative, 25 research groups attempted to replicate 10 moral judgment effects from a single laboratory's research pipeline of unpublished findings. The 10 effects were investigated using online/lab surveys containing psychological manipulations (vignettes) followed by questionnaires. Results revealed a mix of reliable, unreliable, and culturally moderated findings. Unlike any previous replication project, this dataset includes the data from not only the replications but also from the original studies, creating a unique corpus that researchers can use to better understand reproducibility and irreproducibility in science.

/pdf/data-from-a-pre-publication-independent-replication-3gmx7ont56.pdf

Aaron M. Sackett

Papers

Data from a pre-publication independent replication initiative examining ten moral judgement effects