A critical barrier to generating cumulative knowledge is the inability of researchers to observe the results from the full set of research designs. Studies that produce null findings are especially likely to be unobserved, creating biases in publicly accessible research. We call for the establishment of a new discipline-wide norm in which scholars post short “null results reports” online that summarize their research designs, findings, and interpretations. To address the inevitable incentive problems, we argue that decentralized research communities can spur the broader disciplinary norm change that would bring advantage to scientific advance. To facilitate our contribution, we offer a template for these reports.
Ala' Alrababa'h is an Assistant Professor in Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Immigration Policy Lab and he received his Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. His research focuses on authoritarian media, political violence, and immigration and refugees.
Scott Williamson is an Assistant Professor in Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University. His primary research agenda focuses on the popular politics of authoritarian regimes, particularly in the Middle East. He also studies the causes of prejudice and strategies for prejudice reduction, focusing on perceptions of migrant communities and has worked on projects advocating for new approaches to increase transparency and reduce bias in the publication process.