Post-publication critique at top-ranked journals across scientific disciplines: a cross-sectional assessment of policies and practice

Hardwicke, Tom E., Thibault, Robert T., Kosie, Jessica E., Tzavella, Loukia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1463-9396, Bendixen, Theiss, Handcock, Sarah A., Köneke, Vivian E. and Ioannidis, John P. A. 2022. Post-publication critique at top-ranked journals across scientific disciplines: a cross-sectional assessment of policies and practice. Royal Society Open Science 9 (8) , 220139. 10.1098/rsos.220139

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Abstract

Journals exert considerable control over letters, commentaries and online comments that criticize prior research (post-publication critique). We assessed policies (Study One) and practice (Study Two) related to post-publication critique at 15 top-ranked journals in each of 22 scientific disciplines (N = 330 journals). Two-hundred and seven (63%) journals accepted post-publication critique and often imposed limits on length (median 1000, interquartile range (IQR) 500–1200 words) and time-to-submit (median 12, IQR 4–26 weeks). The most restrictive limits were 175 words and two weeks; some policies imposed no limits. Of 2066 randomly sampled research articles published in 2018 by journals accepting post-publication critique, 39 (1.9%, 95% confidence interval [1.4, 2.6]) were linked to at least one post-publication critique (there were 58 post-publication critiques in total). Of the 58 post-publication critiques, 44 received an author reply, of which 41 asserted that original conclusions were unchanged. Clinical Medicine had the most active culture of post-publication critique: all journals accepted post-publication critique and published the most post-publication critique overall, but also imposed the strictest limits on length (median 400, IQR 400–550 words) and time-to-submit (median 4, IQR 4–6 weeks). Our findings suggest that top-ranked academic journals often pose serious barriers to the cultivation, documentation and dissemination of post-publication critique.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: open-access
Publisher:	The Royal Society
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	26 August 2022
Date of Acceptance:	19 July 2022
Last Modified:	18 May 2023 11:49
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/152157

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