A network of change: three priorities requiring united action on research integrity

The last decade has seen renewed concern within the scientific community over the reproducibility and transparency of research findings. This paper outlines the various responsibilities of stakeholders in addressing the systemic issues that contribute to this concern. In particular, this paper asserts that a united, joined up approach is needed, in which all stakeholders, including researchers, universities, funders, publishers, and the UKRI, work together to set standards of research integrity and engender scientific progress and innovation

Stage 1 Registered Report: how responsibility attributions to self and others relate to outcome ownership in group decisions

Responsibility judgements have important consequences in human society. Previous research focused on how someone's responsibility determines the outcome they deserve, for example, whether they are rewarded or punished. Here, we investigate the opposite link: How outcome ownership influences responsibility attributions in a social context. Participants in a group of three perform a majority vote decision-making task between gambles that can lead to a reward or no reward. Only one group member receives the outcome and participants evaluate their and the other players' responsibility for the obtained outcome. Two hypotheses are tested: 1) Whether outcome ownership increases responsibility attributions even when the control over an outcome is similar. 2) Whether people's tendency to attribute higher responsibility for positive vs negative outcomes will be stronger for players who received the outcome. The findings of this study may help reveal how credit attributions can be biased toward particular individuals who receive outcomes as a result of collective work

ReproducibiliTea Johns Hopkins University

Materials from ReproducibiliTea sessions in Johns Hopkins University. Templates and presentations are available for others to use and edit

Stage 2 Registered Report: how responsibility attributions to self and others relate to outcome ownership in group decisions

Background: Responsibility judgements have important consequences in human society. Previous research focused on how someone's responsibility determines the outcome they deserve, for example, whether they are rewarded or punished. Here, in a pre-registered study (Stage 1 Registered Report: https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16480.2), we investigate the opposite link: How outcome ownership influences responsibility attributions in a social context. Methods: In an online study, participants in a group of three perform a majority vote decision-making task between gambles that can lead to a reward or no reward. Only one group member receives the outcome and participants evaluate their and the other players' responsibility for the obtained outcome. Results: We found that outcome ownership increases responsibility attributions even when the control over an outcome is similar. Moreover, ownership had an effect on the valence bias: participants’ higher responsibility attributions for positive vs negative outcomes was stronger for players who received the outcome. Finally, this effect was more pronounced when people rated their own responsibility as compared to when they were rating another’s player responsibility. Conclusions: The findings of this study reveal how credit attributions can be biased toward particular individuals who receive outcomes as a result of collective work, both when people judge their own and someone else’s responsibility

The protective role of father behaviour in the relationship between maternal postnatal depression and child mental health

Background Maternal depression, especially when severe and long-lasting, is associated with adverse mental health outcomes in children. We aimed to assess, for children of mothers with persistent postnatal depression symptoms, whether positive father behaviours would decrease risk for conduct and emotional symptoms. Methods Using data from 4009, mother–father–child trios from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children we examined associations between maternal depression trajectories and positive father behavioural profiles across the postnatal period (child age: 2–21 months), and child conduct and emotional symptom trajectories across middle childhood (child age: 3.5–11 years). Results Positive father behaviour was much less common in families where mothers experienced high-persistent depression symptoms (33%) than in families where mothers did not (56%); of note, these fathers also had higher levels of depression symptoms. Using person-level analysis, exposure to high-persistent maternal depression symptoms increased child risk for a high trajectory of both conduct (odds ratio, 2.69; 95% CI: 2.00, 3.60) and emotional symptoms (odds ratio, 2.47; 95% CI: 1.83, 3.31). However, positive father behaviour (toward child and mother) reduced the odds of following high trajectories of conduct symptoms by 9% (x = 4.52, p < .001) and of emotional symptoms by 10% (x = 4.12, p < .001), even after controlling for father depression symptoms. Using variable-level analysis, we did not identify an interaction between maternal depression and positive father behaviour. For conduct problems, we identified a direct effect of positive father behaviour and lower conduct problems. For emotional symptoms, father behaviour interacted with child age, where the largest decrease was seen at age 9, when symptoms were highest across the sample. Conclusions Positive father behaviour can be protective against chronic mental health problems for children exposed to persistent maternal postnatal depression symptoms