Peer review for journals: Evidence on quality control, fairness, and innovation

This paper reviews the published empirical evidence concerning journal peer review consisting of 68 papers, all but three published since 1975. Peer review improves quality, but its use to screen papers has met with limited success. Current procedures to assure quality and fairness seem to discourage scientific advancement, especially important innovations, because findings that conflict with current beliefs are often judged to have defects. Editors can use procedures to encourage the publication of papers with innovative findings such as invited papers, early-acceptance procedures, author nominations of reviewers, structured rating sheets, open peer review, results-blind review, and, in particular, electronic publication. Some journals are currently using these procedures. The basic principle behind the proposals is to change the decision from whether to publish a paper to how to publish it. The author, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School since 1968, was a founder editor of the Journal of Forecasting and the International Journal of Forecasting. This paper is based on a presentation at a workshop, “Advances in Peer Review Research”, American Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting, Baltimore, MD, February 9, 1996.     

Differential effects of stimulus context on perceived length: Implications for the horizontal-vertical illusion

Six experiments examined orientation-specific effects of stimulus context on the visual perception of horizontal and vertical lengths: Using a paired-comparison method, Experiments 1–5 showed that the probability of judging a given vertical line to be longer than a given horizontal line was relatively great when the stimulus set comprised relatively long horizontals and short verticals, and relatively small when the stimulus set comprised short horizontals with long verticals. To the extent that stimulus context exerts orientation-specific effects on perceived length, it thereby modulates the degree to which verticals appear longer than physically equivalent horizontals: the horizontal—vertical illusion (HVI). Under various contextual conditions, the HVI was as small as 3% (horizontals had to be 3% greater than verticals to be perceived as equally long) and as great as 15%, equaling about 12% in a “neutral” context. In Experiment 6, subjects judged the absolute physical length of each stimulus, and the results indicated that stimulus context acted largely by decreasing perceived lengths. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that differential effects of context reflect a process of stimulus-specific perceptual attenuation.     

Social and Situational Factors Associated With Contraceptive Switching: Implications for Practitioners1

This study was an investigation of contraceptive switching in the context of a 5-wave panel design of diaphragm and pill users from the New York City metropolitan area. The respondents were 525 women between the ages of 14 and 46, who came to one of 10 family planning clinics to obtain birth control, Results indicated a hazard function for switching in which the hazard rate increased in the initial weeks and then gradually declined over time. Clinic experiences on the part of the women were found to alter survivorship trends. Implications of the data for service providers were developed.     

Ethnicity and sex-role socialization: A comparative example using life history data from Hawaii

Hawaii's multiethnic society is explored as a field for researching the impact of ethnicity on the learning of female sex roles via the life history approach. Life history data collected by the author from women of Hawaii's Chinese and Portuguese communities is drawn on for a comparison of their socialization to sex-related roles in the domestic and selected public domains during their girlhoods in the 1920s and 1930s. Discussion examines six categories of information pertinent to research of the ethnicity/sex-role relationship which the case studies suggest life histories are rich in. Possible future directions for research of the topic via the life history approach are considered.     

The reliability of a computer interview for drug use/abuse information

A computer interview was developed to collect information about drug use/abuse from high school students. Responses to this interview were compared with those obtained from an identical paper-and-pencil questionnaire given to the same students, in counterbalanced order. Results were comparable for the two methods, but missing data and logically inconsistent answers obtained with the paper-and-pencil questionnaire were not possible with the computer interview. The overwhelming majority of respondents preferred the computer interview as a means of data collection.     

A psychological and theological understanding of the histrionic personality

This paper examines a representative case of histrionic (the term hysterical is used interchangably) personality from a psychological and theological perspective. A working hypothesis is presented, based on Genesis 1–3, that is both clinical and theological. It is hypothesized that individuals who manifest histrionic features relate to each other as Strong Man/Dependent Woman and/or Strong Woman/Passive Man. Both ways of relating are usually present in the same relationship. In relating to one another in these ways, they are searching for a human god or goddess. In turn, they think and act as if they too were a god or goddess. They have not discovered another way of relating; that is, as male and female created in the image of God. A clinical case study is presented and the course of treatment described. Since the histrionic personality is multidimensional, so must be the treatment.     

Temporal contiguity in electric aversion therapy for cigarette smoking

Seventy dependent heavy smokers (32 cigarettes per day) were randomly assigned to one of five treatment and control procedures: (1) electric aversion therapy, involving ten 20-trial sessions of shocks contiguous with the smoking act. (2) simulated electric aversion. with non-contiguous shocks, (3) non-shock smoking sessions, to control for stimulus satiation and negative practice effects. (4) simple support and attention from therapist, (5) no-treatment. Before treatment, simple ‘self-monitoring’ and ‘self-control’ reduced cigarette consumption by an average of 12% (p < 0.001) and 26% (p < 0.001) respectively. Thirty-four of the 56 treated subjects (61%) were able to stop smoking compared with two out of fourteen (14%) of the no-treatment controls (p < 0.005). Treatment was highly effective at reducing and stopping smoking during the 4-week course and for 2 weeks afterwards (p < 0.005). Its effect was rapid, but not immediate. Outcome was virtually decided after 1 week (five sessions); subjects who had not stopped or almost stopped at this stage were most unlikely to respond later on (p < 0.001). All four treatments were equally effective, regular attendance for 15 min of simple support being as effective as the treatments involving additional 45-min sessions with a second therapist. The effects of contiguous vs non-contiguous shocks did not differ. A motor response was conditioned in 19 of the 28 subjects who received shocks but this was therapeutically irrelevant. The clinical outcome depended on the kind of subject rather than the kind of treatment. Those who were depressed, with poor psychiatric adjustment and a high Eysenck-Scale P score tended to do badly, while those who initially expressed high confidence in the outcome were more likely to succeed (p < 0.001). It is concluded that traditional conditioning processes do not contribute significantly to the clinical response of human subjects to electric aversion therapy for cigarette smoking.     

Assertive training versus rehearsal and the importance of making an assertive response

This study dealt with whether mere practice would enhance assertion, and whether assertive training would reduce negative effect in simulated target situations, even when subjects (Ss) made no overt response. Males reporting difficulty with authority figures received either rehearsal alone or the complete assertive training package; in a subsequent behavioral test half in each group were told to make a response, with the remainder instructed to remain silent. Objective ratings revealed marked improvement following assertive training, while the effects of practice alone were negligible. For Ss receiving assertive training, reduction in selfreported negative affect in the target situations appeared to be independent of whether or not they engaged in overt verbalization, suggesting that assertive training, per se may enhance feelings of well-being.