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How Do We Know Truth? Extensions and Examples From Similar Academic Fields

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

Andrew A. Bennett*
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University
Chao Miao
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University
*
E-mail: bennetta@vcu.edu, Address: Virginia Commonwealth University, 301 West Main Street, PO Box 844000, Richmond, VA 23284

Extract

“What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer”

—Francis Bacon (1601/1942, p. 3)

In their focal article, Kepes and McDaniel (2013) provide recommendations to improve the trustworthiness and accuracy of scientific literature in industrial–organizational (I–O) psychology. These recommendations include frequent examples from the medical field and suggest that I–O psychology should emulate these methods. However, funding, political, and cultural norms are significantly different between these fields. For example, external grants that supplement medical funding focus on how the research can be effectively put into practice (Briner & Rousseau, 2011). This commentary extends the focal article's recommendations by providing potential first steps in an incremental change process toward the ideas discussed by Kepes and McDaniel. We emphasize research designs that can improve causal knowledge and expand two recommendations from the focal article: creating research registries and replicating studies. In doing so, we aim to make suggestions that are more applicable by only providing examples and implementation ideas from other psychology and organizational science disciplines.

Type
Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2013

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