A Method for Improving the Integrity of Peer Review

Peer review is the most important aspect of reputable journals. Without it, we would be unsure about whether the material published was as valid and reliable as is possible. However, with the advent of the Internet, scientific literature has now become subject to a relatively new phenomenon: fake peer reviews. Some dishonest researchers have been manipulating the peer review process to publish what are often inferior papers. There are even papers that explain how to do it. This paper discusses one of those methods and how editors can defeat it by using a special review ID. This method is easy to understand and can be added to current peer review systems easily.     

Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation: A Role for Communication

A paper written in preparation for the World Convocation organized by the World Council of Churches, Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, which took place in Seoul, Korea, last year.     

Assessing the Effectiveness of Integrity Tests: A Review

Integrity tests, and other methods of assessing "honesty," are widely used in pre-employment screening, as most employers want to minimize dishonest and counterproductive behavior among their employees. This review applies a structured framework to the research literature to assess the general effectiveness of integrity tests. The framework employed evaluates integrity tests in terms of their scope, accuracy (reliability), relevance (validity), fairness, acceptability, and practicality. Such a framework based on these six aspects allows for an objective and systematic analysis of the qualities of integrity tests, as well as a structure for the evaluation of other methods of assessing honesty and integrity. For both narrow, overt measures of integrity and broader personality-based measures, research has shown favorable evidence of reliability, validity, fairness, and practicality. Even though in terms of acceptability research has indicated that integrity tests are viewed neither positively nor negatively, there is still considerable debate surrounding the issues of false positive rates and labeling. Comparisons with other methods of assessing honesty and integrity are also reviewed.     

Conflict(s) of Interest in Peer Review: Its Origins and Possible Solutions

Scientific communication takes place at two registers: first, interactions with colleagues in close proximity—members of a network, school of thought or circle; second, depersonalised transactions among a potentially unlimited number of scholars can be involved (e.g., author and readers). The interference between the two registers in the process of peer review produces a drift toward conflict of interest. Three particular cases of peer review are differentiated: journal submissions, grant applications and applications for tenure. The current conflict of interest policies do not cover all these areas. Furthermore, they have a number of flaws, which involves an excessive reliance on scholars’ personal integrity. Conflicts of interest could be managed more efficiently if several elements and rules of the judicial process were accepted in science. The analysis relies on both primary and secondary data with a particular focus on Canada.     

Perceptions of Ethical Problems with Scientific Journal Peer Review: An Exploratory Study

This article reports the results of an anonymous survey of researchers at a government research institution concerning their perceptions about ethical problems with journal peer review. Incompetent review was the most common ethical problem reported by the respondents, with 61.8% (SE = 3.3%) claiming to have experienced this at some point during peer review. Bias (50.5%, SE = 3.4%) was the next most common problem. About 22.7% (SE = 2.8%) of respondents said that a reviewer had required them to include unnecessary references to his/her publication(s), 17.7% (SE = 2.6%) said that comments from reviewers had included personal attacks, and 9.6% (SE = 2.0%) stated that reviewers had delayed publication to publish a paper on the same topic. Two of the most serious violations of peer review ethics, breach of confidentiality (6.8%, SE = 1.7%) and using ideas, data, or methods without permission (5%, SE = 1.5%) were perceived less often than the other problems. We recommend that other investigators follow up on our exploratory research with additional studies on the ethics of peer review.     

变革公平研究评述

个体导向取代系统导向逐步成为组织变革研究的新焦点, 变革公平为个体导向研究提供了新的视角。变革公平反映了人们对组织变革事件推进过程公平性的认知。变革公平受到变革事件属性、变革领导、个体人格和个体的社会支持方面因素的制约, 并影响了员工对变革、组织以及工作的反应。变革公平的未来研究应着重本土化研究、前因变量和调节变量的探索以及开展纵向研究。     

Longitudinal Association of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo with Depression in Adolescents and the Possible Role of Peer Victimization

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - It is unknown whether sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) is prospectively associated with depression in adolescence, and possible processes linking...     

Independent Variable Integrity in Behavioral Research: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

Independent variable integrity has only rather recently been given serious attention in behavioral research. This paper highlights the critical importance of this methodological issue. It is argued that the integrity of independent variables is an essential criterion of whether at study demonstrates a believable functional relationship between the independent and the dependent variables.     

Peer Victimization,Self-Concept,and Grades: The Mediating Role of Self-Concept

This study examined the relations between specific forms of peer victimization, math self-concept, and math grades of 740 students. Results showed that, in boys, all forms of victimization did not affect grades, while in girls, a highly perceived social exclusion impacted grades. In boys, a highly perceived humiliation negatively affected self-concept, whereas a highly perceived social exclusion positively affected self-concept. Boys’ self-concept mediated the relations between social exclusion and grades as well as between humiliation and grades. In girls, a highly perceived happy slapping positively affected self-concept, and self-concept mediated the relation between a highly perceived happy slapping and grades.     

Unpacking the Role of Conflict in Peer Relationships: Implications for Peer Deviance and Crime

ABSTRACT

Although criminologists have long recognized the role that peers play in crime, the specific mechanisms responsible for this relationship have been difficult to isolate. Drawing from the perspectives of differential coercion and social support and differential association, we examine how one type of coercion among friends – conflict – moderates the peer deviance/crime relationship. Using dyadic data, greater levels of conflict are related to higher levels of deviance and conflict weakens the peer deviance–crime relationship. Overall, conflict plays a dual role by relating to higher amounts of deviance while jointly reducing the influence of peer deviance on crime.     

Health Status and Peer Relationships in Early Adolescence: The Role of Peer Contact, Self-esteem, and Social Anxiety

We examined associations between children’s health status and the quality of their peer relationships, as well as factors that may account for individual variation in the quality of chronically ill and healthy children’s peer relationships. Our sample included 268 children (138 boys; 130 girls) with 149 European-Americans and 119 African-Americans. There were 91 children with a chronic illness; 35 with asthma, 26 with diabetes, and 30 with obesity. Chronically ill children were characterized by teachers as displaying less prosocial behavior, less overt aggression, and less relational aggression with peers than healthy children. Chronically ill children reported lower levels of peer contact and higher levels of social anxiety than healthy children. Among chronically ill children those with high self-esteem were more prosocial and less aggressive than those with low self-esteem. Our findings suggest that chronically ill children are at risk for peer relationship difficulties, but that self-esteem may serve as a protective factor against poor peer relationships for some chronically ill children.     

Reflections on Psychoanalysis,Peer Review and Evidence

During these times, when society wants "evidence" that treatments are effective, ethical and cost effective, quality assurance and evidence-based medicine have become catchwords. The powers that be place their hopes on them when they find that they have to prioritize forms of treatment. There are different attempts to define these concepts and there are different approaches, most of them based on quantitative studies. This article describes a different approach. It also discusses how you can use the model for peer review among psychoanalytical colleagues as a qualitative study and a base for both quality assurance and a learning process. It also has its place in any formulation of 'evidence' for psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.     

Peer Relationships and Male Academic Achievement: A Review and Suggested Clarification

Earlier reviews of the research have reached conflicting conclusions about the relationship between social behavior and academic achievement. A brief but comprehensive review is presented. It is suggested that there is greater consistency in this research area than has previously been noted. When the research is categorized according to sample age level, it is found among younger subjects that high achievers tend to be more socially active than low achievers, while among college-age students, low achievers tend to be the more socially active. Questions are raised which future research might investigate.     

Rights and Morals, Issues, and Candidate Integrity: Insights into the Role of the News Media

In recent American political discourse, elections and debates tend to be presented by the news media as collisions of basic principles, with opposing parties advancing beliefs about what is right and what is wrong. When news coverage of an election campaign focuses on issues that emphasize rights and morals, voting behavior may be affected in two ways: Citizens become likely to form and make use of evaluations of the integrity of the candidates, and citizens become motivated to seek an issue-position "match" with candidates on those issues for which discourse is ethically charged (particularly when they hold a similar interpretation of the issue). These ideas were tested in an experiment in which labor union members and undergraduate students were presented with news stories about the contrasting positions of fictional candidates for elective office. Across three political environments, all information was held constant except for systematic alteration of a different issue in each environment. These three issues (abortion, gun control, and health care) vary in the types of value conflicts emphasized in news coverage. The results shed light on how individuals process, interpret, and use issue coverage in choosing among candidates.     

Peer Rejection and Internalizing Behavior: The Mediating Role of Peer Victimization in Preschool

The author examined the relationship among peer rejection, peer victimization, and internalizing behaviors. The author hypothesized that physical and relational victimization would have a different indirect effect on the relationship between peer rejection and internalizing behaviors. Participants were 94 preschool children (37 girls; average age 49.97 months) from two university preschools located in the northern part of the United States. The results indicated that internalizing behaviors predicted the mediating variables only regarding relational victimization. Relational victimization indirectly affected the association between peer rejection and internalizing behaviors. The study provides evidence of the mediating effect of victimization behaviors on the relationship among peer rejection, victimization, and internalizing behaviors.