The Production of Knowledge: Enhancing Progress in Social Science (Strategies for Social Inquiry)

"Whilst a great deal of progress has been made in recent decades, concerns persist about the course of the social sciences. Progress in these disciplines is hard to assess and core scientific goals such as discovery, transparency, reproducibility and cumulation remain frustratingly out of reach. Despite having technical acumen and an array of tools at their disposal, today's social scientists may be only slightly better equipped to vanquish error and construct an edifice of truth than their forbears - who conducted analyses with slide rules and wrote up results with typewriters. This volume considers the challenges facing the social sciences, as well as possible solutions. In doing so, we adopt a systemic view of the subject matter. What are the rules and norms governing behavior in the social sciences? What kinds of research, and which sorts of researcher, succeed and fail under the current system? In what ways does this incentive structure serve, or subvert, the goal of scientific progress?"--Page i Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 2 Title - Series......Page 3 Title - Full......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Detailed Contents......Page 10 Figures......Page 14 Tables......Page 15 Contributors......Page 16 Acknowledgments......Page 18 1. Introduction......Page 20 Part I Discovery......Page 34 2. Exploratory Research......Page 36 3. Research Cycles......Page 61 Part II Publishing......Page 90 4. Peer Review......Page 92 5. Length Limits......Page 117 Part III Transparency and Reproducibility......Page 146 6. Transparency and Reproducibility: Conceptualizing the Problem......Page 148 7. Transparency and Reproducibility: Potential Solutions......Page 184 8. Making Research Data Accessible......Page 216 9. Pre-registration and Results-Free Review in Observational and Qualitative Research......Page 240 Part IV Appraisal......Page 284 10. Replication for Quantitative Research......Page 286 11. Measurement Replication in Qualitative and Quantitative Studies......Page 303 12. Reliability of Inference Analogs of Replication in Qualitative Research......Page 320 13. Coordinating Reappraisals......Page 353 14. Comprehensive Appraisal......Page 373 15. Impact Metrics......Page 390 Part V Diversity......Page 420 16. Whats Wrong with Replicating the Old Boys Networks......Page 422 17. Ideological Diversity......Page 451 Part VI Conclusions......Page 476 18. Proposals......Page 478 References......Page 506 Index......Page 562 A wide-ranging discussion of factors that impede the cumulation of knowledge in the social sciences, including problems of transparency, replication, and reliability. Rather than focusing on individual studies or methods, this book examines how collective institutions and practices have (often unintended) impacts on the production of knowledge. A wide-ranging discussion of factors that impede the cumulation of knowledge in the social sciences, with suggested solutions Edited By Colin Elman [and 2 Others]. Electronic Reproduction. Cambridge Available Via World Wide Web.