2025/07/01 by Annie Whamond, Simine Vazire, Beth Clarke +4 · 2 voices
Decision Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Academic Publishing and Open Access #scientometrics and bibliometrics research #Academic Writing and Publishing
paper · doi:10.1177/25152459251366102
Postpublication critique, such as letters to the editor, can contribute to the validity and trustworthiness of scientific research. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the policy and practice of postpublication critique in (a) randomly selected ( N = 100) and (b) prominent ( N = 100) psychology journals. In 2023, an explicit submission option for postpublication critique was available at 23% (95% confidence interval [CI] = [16%, 32%]) of randomly sampled psychology journals and 38% of the most prominent psychology journals. Journals sometimes imposed limits on the length and time allowed to submit critiques. We manually inspected two random samples of empirical articles published in 2020 (articles per sample: N = 101), estimating the prevalence of postpublication critique to be 0% (95% CI = [0%, 3.7%]) in psychology journals generally and 1% (95% CI = [0.2%, 5.4%]) in the most prominent psychology journals. The policy and practice of postpublication critique is seriously neglected in psychology journals.