Twenty-year trends of authorship and sampling in applied biomechanics research

This study documented the trends in authorship and sampling in applied biomechanics research published in the Journal of Applied Biomechanics and ISBS Proceedings. Original research articles of the 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, and 2009 volumes of these serials were reviewed, excluding reviews, modeling papers, technical notes, and editorials. Compared to 1989 volumes, the mean number of authors per paper significantly increased (35 and 100%, respectively) in the 2009 volumes, along with increased rates of hyperauthorship, and a decline in rates of single authorship. Sample sizes varied widely across papers and did not appear to change since 1989.     

Authorship in a small medical journal: A study of contributorship statements by corresponding authors

The authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) are widely accepted in biomedical journals, but many studies in large and prestigious journals show that a considerable proportion of authors do not fulfill these criteria. We investigated authorship contributions in a small medical journal outside the scientific mainstream, to see if poor adherence to authorship criteria is common in biomedical journals. We analyzed statements on research contribution, as checked by the corresponding author, for individual authors of 114 research articles, representing 475 authors, submitted to the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ) from 1999 to 2000. Only 40% of authors fulfilled the ICMJE authorship criteria. The authors listed first on the by-line were more likely to fulfill the authorship criteria than all other authors on the by-line. The percentage of authors fulfilling the ICMJE criteria of authorship decreased with the increase in the number of authors listed on the by-line. These results indicate that poor adherence to ICMJE authorship criteria is poor across biomedical journals, regardless of the size of the scientific community. Authorship and contributorship in biomedical journals, as well as editorial ethical responsibilities towards authorship criteria need critical redefinition and education of both editors and authors.     

Reproducible research in sport and exercise psychology: The role of sample sizes

ObjectivesWe aim to introduce the discussion on the crisis of confidence to sport and exercise psychology. We focus on an important aspect of this debate, the impact of sample sizes, by assessing sample sizes within sport and exercise psychology. Researchers have argued that publications in psychological research contain numerous false-positive findings and inflated effect sizes due to small sample sizes.MethodWe analyse the four leading journals in sport and exercise psychology regarding sample sizes of all quantitative studies published in these journals between 2009 and 2013. Subsequently, we conduct power analyses.ResultsA substantial proportion of published studies does not have sufficient power to detect effect sizes typical for psychological research. Sample sizes and power vary between research designs. Although many correlational studies have adequate sample sizes, experimental studies are often underpowered to detect small-to-medium effects.ConclusionsAs sample sizes are small, research in sport and exercise psychology may suffer from false-positive results and inflated effect sizes, while at the same time failing to detect meaningful small effects. Larger sample sizes are warranted, particularly in experimental studies.     

Profile of Mood States Research in Sport and Exercise Psychology: Past,Present, and Future

Abstract

A review was conducted of the sport and exercise literature for the years 1971 to early 1998 in which the Profile of Mood States (POMS) figured prominently. Analyses indicated that there were 258 published articles in which the POMS was used with athletic or exercise samples during this time period. Of these articles, 226 were data-based and the remainder dealt with general, theoretical, or psychometric issues. Prominent journals publishing the data-based research, leading authors, sport samples used, gender issues, and temporal trends in the use of the POMS were noted. Anticipated future developments include: improvements in research methodologies used to study relationships among sport, exercise, and mood; continued validation of abbreviated forms of the scale as well as a form for use with youth samples; and increased utilization of the POMS for mood profiling.     

Twenty-five years of JEAB: A survey of selected demographic characteristics related to publication trends

Some demographic characteristics related to authorship of research reports in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) were analyzed as to affiliation and location (U.S. or foreign) of authors. In addition, the incidence of publications by the members of the editorial board was tallied. The number of different affiliations of JEAB authors has decreased steadily over the past several years with substantially fewer papers deriving from independent laboratories and medical schools. While the number of papers by foreign authors has generally increased over the years there is a recent reduction in their number. These data paint a mixed picture of the "health" status of the experimental analysis of behavior as reflected in its major publication outlet.     

Research quality considerations for grounded theory research in sport & exercise psychology

ObjectivesThe aims of this article are: to examine the application of grounded theory in sport and exercise psychology; to locate such applications within broader grounded theory methodological debates and; to support the future use and evolution of the method in the field.MethodsA search of the four sport and exercise psychology journals with the highest impact factors in 2007 (Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology and The Sport Psychologist) using the search term “grounded theory” and the date parameters 2000–2008 was conducted. These articles were discussed in relation to research quality concerns for grounded theory at the micro- and macro-level.ResultsTwelve articles were returned from the search. At the micro-level, eight elements representing collective sufficient conditions for grounded theory were discussed, which only two of the twelve articles returned met. Examples of common mistakes in relation to these elements were provided from the twelve articles. At the macro-level, the ontological and epistemological debates surrounding variants of grounded theory were discussed. Only one of the twelve articles explicitly recognised that there are variants of grounded theory, whilst the potential to generate more generic formal theory, and thus make a wider contribution to bodies of knowledge, was not discussed in any of the articles.ConclusionsThere are research quality concerns regarding the application of grounded theory in sport and exercise psychology at the micro- and macro-level, largely linked to a lack of understanding of the methodology and its implementation. Suggestions to address this for editors, reviewers and authors are offered.     

Authorship and responsibility in health sciences research: a review of procedures for fairly allocating authorship in multi-author studies

While there has been significant discussion in the health sciences and ethics literatures about problems associated with publication practices (e.g., ghost- and gift-authorship, conflicts of interest), there has been relatively little practical guidance developed to help researchers determine how they should fairly allocate credit for multi-authored publications. Fair allocation of credit requires that participating authors be acknowledged for their contribution and responsibilities, but it is not obvious what contributions should warrant authorship, nor who should be responsible for the quality and content of the scientific research findings presented in a publication. In this paper, we review arguments presented in the ethics and health science literatures, and the policies or guidelines proposed by learned societies and journals, in order to explore the link between author contribution and responsibility in multi-author multidisciplinary health science publications. We then critically examine the various procedures used in the field to help researchers fairly allocate authorship.     

Women in the experimental analysis of behavior

We examined the status of women in the experimental analysis of behavior by comparing authorship by women in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) to authorship by women in three similar journals. For all journals, the percentage of articles with at least one female author, the percentage of authors who are female, and the percentage of articles with a female first author increased from 1978 to 1997. However, the participation by women in JEAB lagged behind participation in the other journals on each measure. Female membership on the editorial board of JEAB also failed to increase from 1978 to 1997. Suggestions are made that may increase the participation of women in the experimental analysis of behavior.     

Publication patterns in developmental psychology: Trends and social networks

Interest in publication patterns has been steady. Journals have instituted policies in an effort to curb bias and provide globally representative research. This study aimed to examine if publication patterns were present in two developmental psychology journals. It also explored the social networks of prominent authors and the prevalence of informal author–editor relationships, searching for any potential power groups. Data were taken from empirical articles published between 2005 and 2014 in Child Development (CD) and The International Journal of Early Childhood (IJEC) data points were geographical authorship affiliation, informal author relationships as established by co‐publishing, and connections to journal editors via identical affiliation. Results confirmed the previously established North American dominance in published research. In CD a strongly interlinked social network was identified between authors over the 10 years, with 15 chief influentialists binding groups of authors together. Results suggest that patterns are still present in published research in the realm of developmental psychology. To conclude, the potential implications of these patterns within developmental psychology are presented.     

Describing citation structures in sport burnout literature: A citation network analysis

ObjectivesTo evaluate sport burnout research using citation network analysis.DesignA citation network analysis.MethodsWe began by searching the term “sport and burnout” in SportDiscus, Physical Education Index, and PsycINFO. From the returned search, we then selected and analyzed all peer-reviewed English articles that were published before 2012. This allowed us to create a network of inter-citations.ResultsOur search yielded 102 articles, of which there were 11 reviews (11%), 13 qualitative articles (13%), 76 quantitative articles (75%), and two mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) articles (2%). The 11 most cited articles were published between 1984 and 2006, appearing in 5 journals (7 of them in the same journal). Merely 2 of the most cited articles investigated coach burnout. Top-cited articles typically conducted original research using male and female individual sport athletes and were published by North American authors, with two recent exceptions. The most cited article, and also most influential burnout model, was Smith's (1986) cognitive-affective stress model.ConclusionsThe findings show that following an initial focus on coach burnout, more recent studies examine athletes. In this paper we have identified some strengths amongst the most cited papers, including a wide range of publication dates and a focus on both male and female athletes; however, there were also limitations such as a scarcity of articles investigating team sport athletes.     

Assumptions in research in sport and exercise psychology

ObjectivesThe aim of this article is to outline how certain key assumptions affect the quality and interpretation of research in quantitative sport and exercise psychology.MethodsA review of three common assumptions made in the sport and exercise psychology literature was conducted. The review focused on three assumptions relating to research validity and the treatment and interpretation of observations. A central theme to this discussion is the assumption that research observations reflect true effects in a population.ResultsAssumptions often made in sport and exercise psychology research were identified in three key areas: (1) validity, (2) inferences of causality, and (3) effect size and the “practical significance” of research findings. Findings indicated that many studies made assumptions about the validity of the self-report psychological measures adopted and few provided a comprehensive evaluation of the validity of these measures. Researchers adopting correlational designs in sport and exercise psychology often infer causality despite such conclusions being based on theory or speculation rather than empirical evidence. Research reports still do not include effect size statistics as standard and confine the discussion of findings to statistical significance alone rather than commenting on “practical significance”.ConclusionResearch quality can only be evaluated with due consideration of the common assumptions that limits empirical investigation in sport and exercise psychology. We offer some practical advice for researchers, reviewers, and journal editors to minimise the impact of these assumptions and enhance the quality of research findings in sport and exercise psychology.     

1980-2009年国内眼动研究的文献计量分析

对收录在中国期刊网和中国优秀博硕士学位论文全文数据库中的370篇眼动研究文献(1980—2009年)进行计量学分析,结果表明:(1)国内眼动研究从2003年起呈现快速增长趋势;(2)以阅读方面的实证研究为主,主要以大学生为研究对象,以中文阅读材料和图片为研究材料,以Eyelink-Ⅱ和ASL-504眼动仪为研究工具,重点关注眼动指标和阅读指标;(3)天津师范大学是国内眼动研究的重要力量;(4)成果发表以心理学期刊为主,其中《心理科学》发表最多;(5)合作研究已成为眼动研究的主要形式,但核心作者群尚未形成;(6)大多数眼动研究受到各类项目资助。     

A Coauthorship Analysis of Internationalization in Political Psychology Through the Lens of ISPP Dissemination Activities

Internationalization is a key aim of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP). This article uses bibliometric techniques to explore international collaborations in the Society's core activities, namely the journal Political Psychology and annual meetings. We explore how authors from different regions of the world are interconnected through coauthorship, using country information extracted from authors' affiliation and coded as Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) or non-WEIRD. Study 1 analyzes coauthorship in the Society's journal Political Psychology from 1985–2014 (30 years), with 1151 authors from 42 countries and 1337 coauthorship ties between them. Study 2 mapped the coauthorship relationships for annual meetings for which documentation was available, eventually collecting data from 2006 to 2014 (9 years). In total, 4260 authors from 74 countries were represented, with 6884 collaborative ties. Annual meetings reflected more international collaboration than the journal on several dimensions, including a large internationally connected giant component of collaborating authors evident in annual meetings, but not the journals. In annual meetings, there were more collaborations between WEIRD and non-WEIRD authors. However, even at annual meetings, deep internationalization involving non-WEIRD authors was rare, and the activities of the Society primarily represent academics from WEIRD countries, particularly the United States.     

Citation Networks of Communication Journals, 1977–1985 Cliques and Positions,Citations Made and Citations Received

This article analyzes the pattern of citations among all communication journals covered by the first nine years of the Journal Citation Reports volume of the Social Sciences Citation Index (Garfield, 1977–1985). It approaches these analyses from two perspectives: (1) bibliometric analysis of citation flows, ratios, and impact factors, and (2) network analysis of both cohesion-based and position-based citation patterns. The field of communication exhibits clear clustering and inbreeding, consisting of cliques of interpersonal journals, mass media journals, and residual isolate journals. Citation patterns within and across these cliques have been very stable from 1977 through 1985. The cohesion analyses show that Human Communication Research and Communication Education provide weak ties from mass media journals to interpersonal communication journals. The Journal of Communication is cited the most strongly by the most journals, and provides, by means of citations, bidirectional channels for the flow of scientific information between mass media journals and interpersonal journals. The positional analyses show that the set of journals that has similar citing patterns is somewhat different from the set of journals that is cited similarly. In particular, the set of sources for the research reported in articles in these journals is not similar to the set of journals that refer to the articles in these journals.     

Achievement and social goals, persistence-effort, and intentions of sport practice in physical education students

The present study examined the relationship between achievement and social goals, and explored how both types of goals can affect secondary school students' persistence/effort in Physical Education classes, as well as their intention to participate in sport activities after finishing secondary school. A sample of 350 students (aged 15-17) from two high schools in Asturias participated in the study. Multiple regression analysis showed: a) persistence/effort in physical education classes was better explained by social responsibility goals, followed by mastery-approach goals and mastery-avoidance goals; b) achievement goals are the only predictors of young people's intention of practicing sport in the future. Differences were found in these results according to gender and course. These findings help us better understand the processes involved in Physical Education. Finally, implications to improve classes and to achieve young people's more active and higher level of implication in sports are discussed.