What went wrong? How can we do it better?
In celebration of SIPS’s 10th anniversary, early reformers discussed challenges and improvements in psychological science at the SIPS 2025 Pre-Conference Discussion: What went wrong? How can we do it better? This virtual warm-up event took place on December 18, 2024. Our invited speakers were:
- Simine Vazire, Professor at the University of Melbourne, co-founder of SIPS
- Brian Nosek, Executive Director of the Center for Open Science, co-founder of SIPS
- Dorothy Bishop, University of Oxford
- Joseph Simmons, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, co-founder of Data Colada
- Leif Nelson, Professor at UC Berkeley, co-founder of Data Colada
Moderator: Balazs Aczel, ELTE, host of SIPS 2025 in Budapest, Hungary.
The SIPS annual meeting will be held online on May 21-22 and in person on June 25-27 (Budapest, Hungary).
Speakers
Prof. Simine Vazire. I am a Professor at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences and Co-Director of the MetaMelb Lab, University of Melbourne. My research explores whether and how science, particularly psychology, self-corrects. I focus on the methods and practices used in research, as well as the structural systems in science, such as peer review. I’m also interested in understanding self-knowledge, specifically where our blind spots lie. I have edited several journals, and am currently the Editor-in-Chief of Psychological Science. Finally, I am proud to be the co-founder of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS), along with Brian Nosek.
Prof. Brian Nosek. I am a professor at the University of Virginia and Executive Director of the Center for Open Science (COS), which I co-founded to enhance transparency, rigor, and reproducibility in science. My research focuses on understanding how systems and people produce values-misaligned behavior and developing methods to align actions with values. I also co-developed the Implicit Association Test, advancing research on implicit bias, and I continually work to improve research methodologies, including replication and the use of precommitment to reduce bias. My goal is to shape the future of research culture by evaluating and implementing systemic changes that support scientific progress. Alongside Simine Vazire, I co-founded SIPS.
Prof. Dorothy V. M. Bishop. I’m a Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford, specializing in developmental language disorders. My research focuses on understanding how children’s communication abilities are shaped by both cognitive and genetic factors. I developed the Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC) to help diagnose communication impairments, and I co-founded RADLD, an international initiative to raise awareness of developmental language disorder (DLD). I’m a Fellow of the Royal Society and have received honorary degrees for my work in advancing knowledge on language impairments in children.
Prof. Joseph Simmons. I’m the Dorothy Silberberg Professor of Applied Statistics and Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions and the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania. My primary research interests are judgment and decision-making, focusing on errors and biases that affect people’s judgments, predictions, and choices. However, I’m better known for my work in research methods. Alongside Leif Nelson and Uri Simonsohn, I’ve spent over a decade identifying and fixing practices that lead to false-positive research findings. We’ve exposed p-hacking, developed tools like p-curve to assess evidential value, and co-founded the Data Colada blog, which advances the credibility of published research. We also work to expose fraud and offer platforms like AsPredicted and ResearchBox to improve research transparency.
Prof. Leif Nelson. I am the Ewald T. Grether Professor in Business Administration and Marketing at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. My research focuses on consumer well-being, decision-making, and human judgment. I earned my undergraduate degree in psychology from Stanford and my PhD from Princeton. I co-direct the Credibility Lab together with Joe Simmons and Uri Simonsohn, where we work to improve the quality of scientific evidence. I’m also a co-founder of Data Colada, a blog dedicated to promoting transparency and rigor in research through data analysis and critical discussion.
Prof. Balazs Aczel. I received my PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, and currently, I’m a professor at ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary, where I also serve as vice-dean for science. I lead the Budapest Metascience Lab, where we try to find efficient ways to improve the transparency and quality of science. Lately, I initiated the revival of psychology of science, psychologists’ approach to understanding how science is done. I aim to draw attention to the human aspects of science as a key to achieving lasting improvements.
