The Obligation of Intellectuals
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5163370 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William M Epstein (Chinese University of Hong Kong), William Epstein (0000-0001-7962-3814, Chinese University of Hong Kong, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 244-247 |
| Publication date | 1990-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Science Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/016224399001500205 |
| OpenAlex | W1969723987 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 8 |
The controversy surrounding Confirmational Response Bias Among Social Work Journals (CRB; Epstein 1990) stems from its critical toneespecially in earlier drafts, its unflattering findings, and its use of deception to study journal publication processes. If the tone of CRB had rung a less challenging note; if its qualitative analysis had been summed up as a whispered reminder that social work referees might profit from greater attention to their comments; if its quantitative analysis had been simply reported as disconfirmatory; then perhaps little would have been made of the paper. Even assuming that a charge would have been brought, the National Committee on Inquiry of the National Association of Social Workers might have accepted the research with more collegial regard. As it was, the National Committee sought to banish me from social work. If the reviews in CRB are typical of social work's standards, then the editors and referees in the field have something to be defensive about. The better reviews came from journals that originated outside of social work organizations per se. Many referees missed the glaring methodological weaknesses of the pseudomanuscript. Many reviews were too brief. Many were incoherent, inaccurate, trivial, and highly individualistic. The response to CRB should have been tempered by the quality of the social work literature itself. In the six-year period from 1978 to 1983, only 12 studies from among an estimated 6,500 or more papers that appeared in the studied journals passed a very minimal methodological screen: randomly selected controls (Rubin 1985). Yet most of these were flawed. Indeed only one stands up as an example of high-quality research (Stein and Test 1980)
Law and economics · Obligation · Political science · Sociology · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Social Work Education and Practice
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2024 (31) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |