Case Study

Based on your understanding of publication bias, explain why Dr. Aris should consider submitting these findings to the Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis rather than archiving them privately. How does this decision benefit the scientific community?

Case context: Dr. Aris is testing a new cognitive training app designed to improve working memory capacity. After analyzing data from 150 participants, Dr. Aris finds a p-value of p=0.42p = 0.42, failing to reject the null hypothesis of no difference between the training group and the control group. Disappointed, Dr. Aris considers storing the findings in a drawer and starting a new project on a different topic.

Question: Based on your understanding of publication bias, explain why Dr. Aris should consider submitting these findings to the Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis rather than archiving them privately. How does this decision benefit the scientific community?

Sample answer: Dr. Aris should submit the findings to the Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis because keeping them archived privately contributes to the file drawer problem, creating a bias where only successful training apps are visible in the literature. Publishing these non-significant results helps the scientific community by presenting a complete and unbiased picture of the app's efficacy, which prevents other researchers from wasting resources running the exact same failed experiment.

Key points:

  • Archiving the study privately contributes to the file drawer problem/publication bias.
  • The Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis is the correct venue to publish methodologically sound null findings.
  • Publishing these findings benefits the community by preventing duplicate research and resource waste.
  • Sharing null results ensures an unbiased and complete representation of the phenomena.

Rubric: A successful response must demonstrate comprehension of publication bias by: 1) Explaining how archiving the study privately contributes to the file drawer problem. 2) Explaining that the Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis provides a dedicated space for methodologically sound, non-significant findings. 3) Describing how publishing these findings benefits the scientific community (e.g., preventing resource waste, reducing bias, showing a complete picture of the phenomena).

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Updated 2026-05-27

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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU

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