Call for abstracts for special issue in Journal of Second Language Studies on

Questionable Research Practices



Questionable research practices (QRPs) comprise the vast gray area in between ideal researcher behavior, on the one hand, and behaviors that are clearly unethical or inappropriate, on the other (see Yaw et al., 2022). Building on a growing body of QRP-based research both within and beyond applied linguistics (e.g., Fanelli, 2009; Isbell et al., 2022), Larsson et al. (2023) present a taxonomy of 58 QRPs (found here) for applied linguistics along with ratings for their corresponding frequency and severity.



These and other efforts have sought to raise awareness of QRPs in applied linguistics, noting that many present potentially serious threats to the validity of our findings. Nevertheless, this set of QRPs—both individually and in the aggregate—needs to be more fully examined in order to gain a clearer understanding of (a) how, when, and to what extent QRPs occur, (b) when and to what extent they may be problematic, and (c) their context-dependent nature. For example, one QRP is “excessive self-citation”. But what is “excessive” in the context of applied linguistics? Under what circumstances is it all right to frequently cite your own work? Do (excessive) self-citation practices vary across journals, author demographics, and so forth?



For this special issue of the Journal of Second Language Studies, we invite proposals for articles that explore one or multiple QRPs in applied linguistics, going beyond Larsson et al.’s findings of QRP frequency and perceived severity. We invite contributions applying any methodological approach including surveys, corpus-based techniques, coding of primary studies for evidence of QRPs (i.e., synthetic/meta-analytic techniques), case studies, reviews of curricula and training materials, and interviews (e.g., with researchers at different career stages).



The following article types/lengths will be considered:

- Full-length articles (maximum 9000 words)

- Short reports (3000-5000 words)

- Position papers (max 9000 words)



Timeline

October 10, 2023


Abstracts (300 words max + references) sent to luke.plonsky@nau.edu

November 10, 2023


Decisions with invitations to submit sent to authors

July 1, 2024


Initial submission of complete manuscripts for editorial and peer review

October 1, 2024


Final submission of manuscripts

2025


Anticipated publication



Special issue editors

Luke Plonsky, Northern Arizona University

Tove Larsson, Northern Arizona University

Scott Sterling, Indiana State University

Kate Yaw, University of South Florida

Merja Kytö, Uppsala University

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