Data Policies, Data Management, and the Quality of Academic Writing (original) (raw)

2016, International Studies Perspectives

Publishing in top-ranking journals in the Social Sciences and International Relations requires writing with clarity. Accurately described and transparent methods sections ensure high quality academic writing. In the methodology section of empirical papers explain exact steps taken by the authors when operationalizing concepts and testing hypotheses to facilitate replication. This also allows for monitoring quality, challenging findings and promoting good scientific practice. The quality of methodology sections is not a given, but the result of interaction between academic cultures of data sharing, effective application of rules, academic excellence and good quality Research Data Management (RDM). This article evaluates the impact of standards on the replicability of a paper. Specifically we test the impact of a) research funders' data policies, b) rising expectations of RDM quality at the data collection level, c) replication policy/data policy of academic journals. To do so we run an empirical analysis of a set of 66 articles published during the period 1984-2013 that use data from all waves of the European Values Survey (EVS) to ensure variation in RDM quality across waves. We find differences demonstrating the impact of good RDM and data policies as integral to good scientific practice.