CRP Research Reporting & Dissemination 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which citation style is most commonly required by social and behavioral science journals?
- MLA
- Chicago
- APA (Correct answer)
- Turabian
Correct answer: APA
APA (American Psychological Association) style is the standard for social, behavioral, and health sciences research reporting.
Question 2: A researcher discovers a significant error in a published article. The appropriate corrective action is to:
- Publish a new study ignoring the error
- Submit a correction or erratum to the journal (Correct answer)
- Delete the article from personal websites
- Notify only the study sponsor privately
Correct answer: Submit a correction or erratum to the journal
Publishing a formal correction or erratum maintains the integrity of the scientific record and informs readers of the inaccuracy.
Question 3: Which of the following best describes a 'conflict of interest' in research dissemination?
- Disagreement between co-authors about the writing style
- A financial or personal interest that could bias the reporting of findings (Correct answer)
- Competing submissions to two different journals simultaneously
- Differences in statistical interpretation among reviewers
Correct answer: A financial or personal interest that could bias the reporting of findings
A conflict of interest occurs when a researcher's personal, financial, or professional interests could inappropriately influence the research process or its reporting.
Question 4: The IMRAD structure commonly used in scientific research reports stands for:
- Introduction, Methods, Results, Analysis, Discussion
- Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (Correct answer)
- Interpretation, Methodology, Reporting, Analysis, Dissemination
- Introduction, Measures, Research design, Analysis, Data
Correct answer: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion
IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) is the standard organizational format for empirical research articles in the sciences.
Question 5: Which practice is considered unethical in research dissemination?
- Publishing the same findings in two different journals without disclosure (Correct answer)
- Acknowledging all funding sources
- Including a declaration of competing interests
- Sharing preprints before formal peer review
Correct answer: Publishing the same findings in two different journals without disclosure
Duplicate publication—submitting substantially the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously—violates publishing ethics and is considered self-plagiarism.
Question 6: A 'preprint' in the context of research dissemination refers to:
- The galley proof sent before final publication
- A version of a manuscript posted publicly before formal peer review (Correct answer)
- An abstract submitted to a conference
- The internal draft shared only within a research team
Correct answer: A version of a manuscript posted publicly before formal peer review
Preprints are complete manuscripts deposited on public servers (e.g., SSRN, bioRxiv) before undergoing formal peer review, accelerating knowledge sharing.
Question 7: When reporting survey research findings, response rate is important primarily because:
- It determines how long the report should be
- Low response rates can introduce non-response bias and limit generalizability (Correct answer)
- It increases the statistical power of chi-square tests
- Higher response rates automatically confirm internal validity
Correct answer: Low response rates can introduce non-response bias and limit generalizability
Low response rates raise concerns that respondents differ systematically from non-respondents, potentially biasing findings and limiting how broadly conclusions apply.
CRP Research Reporting & Dissemination 3
Which citation style is most commonly required by social and behavioral science journals?