Community Engagement
A critical interdisciplinary exchange synthesising diverse perspectives and proposing concrete directions for addressing incentive-related tensions in scientific publishing.
Psychology of Science Collaboration Hub
Conflict of Interest Research
Academic publishing advances knowledge, but it also advances careers. We are an international group of researchers investigating whether this dual role creates a conflict of interest and how the scientific community should respond.
Project introduction
Academic publishing functions both as a marker of scientific contribution and as a key mechanism for career advancement. This dual role raises a normative question. Should structural incentives to publish be considered conflicts of interest that require disclosure? We address this question through an action research approach that includes a community-wide survey. The goal of the survey is to map diverse perspectives on what counts as a conflict of interest in publishing and how such interests should be handled. The survey will result in a new peer-reviewed paper, an openly available anonymised dataset, and practical recommendations for researchers, editors, and institutions.
Goal
Our goal is to systematically document how different stakeholders define publishing-related conflicts of interest and to identify areas of consensus and disagreement. The intended audience includes researchers, journal editors, reviewers, and science communicators. The intended change is to foster greater reflexivity about incentive structures in science and to inform clearer, more consistent practices for disclosure and methodological safeguards.
Open Anonymised Dataset
A publicly available dataset documenting community views on publishing incentives and disclosure practices, enabling transparency and further research.
Practical Guidance for Research Practice
Actionable recommendations for researchers, journals, and institutions on integrating reflexivity, clearer disclosure norms, and methodological safeguards into everyday scientific work.
Survey
Help shape the discussion on conflicts of interest in science
We invite researchers and non-researchers alike to take part in a short survey on what counts as a conflict of interest in academic publishing, and how such interests ought to be disclosed. Your perspective will contribute to the next phase of an ongoing interdisciplinary action research project on incentive structures in science.
- Time: 5 to 10 minutes
- Device: mobile or desktop
- Data: anonymous, stored securely, shared only in anonymised form for research and educational purposes
Take the survey
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White paper reference
Featured output
Theory and Society . 2025
Why I declare a conflict of interest and you should not
Acem et al. (2025)
This paper argues that while the structural incentives that accompany publishing may resemble a conflict of interest, the solution lies not in disclosure per se but in greater reflexivity, institutional reform, and methodological safeguards.
People involved
Psychology of Science Hub
Psychology of science is understood as covering all metascientific approaches that use the empirical methods, perspectives or conceptual frameworks of psychology to understand or support the way in which science is done (Aczel, 2024).
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