Information Technology Reference
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In this case, the materials presented have no legitimate basis in
fact, and if you found this information on the Web you would be on
your own to conclude that this research is fatally flawed.
Example 3: Unpopular Perspectives
A faculty member interested in classroom pedagogy conducted a careful study
comparing the effectiveness of a labbased format that encouraged collaboration
with a lecturebased class in which the lecturer spoke in a monotone voice. For
the sake of this example, suppose that the faculty member concluded that mo
notone lectures were more effective and wrote the results in a paper entitled The
Effectiveness of the Lecture Method Using a Monotone Voice. This paper then
was submitted to an appropriate educational journal for publication.
As in our previous examples, if the research methodology was flawed, the paper
could be rejected (the likely outcome). However, suppose the research was well
designed, the statistical analysis compelling, and the writeup convincing. The fi
nal paper would include results that were contrary to many other findings and
were culturally unpopular. The reviewers and editor might conclude that the pa
per, although controversial, represents solid research, and the paper might be ac
cepted. Conversely, the reviewers or editor might decide that the paper's conclu
sions were so unorthodox that the paper should be rejected regardless of its
careful methodology. Although we might hope that most research will be ac
cepted or rejected on its objective merits, it is possible that some startling re
sults might not be published because reviewers were not prepared to accept the
conclusions.
From a different, but related, perspective, newspapers and magazines typically
receive large numbers of stories and articles for possible publication. When the
quantity of such submitted materials exceeds space available, the editors must
make choices about what will appear. Space limitations imply that some materi
als must be rejected, but, at the same time, rigorous selection processes can lead
to publications of very high quality. On the negative side, selection also may ex
clude some fine materials that are worthy of general distribution. In this context,
the research about monotone lecturing may be considered of high quality, but
space constraints may block its publication in favor of other materials that are
even better. This situation in publishing is not unlike circumstances regarding
college admission, when space constraints sometimes have a significant effect
on the numbers admitted. A college may receive applications from many well
qualified candidates, when the school has room for only a relative few. In such
cases, the school rejects many candidates, even though they have excellent po
tential and could make wonderful contributions.
As with the previous examples, if publication in printed forms or presentation at
conferences is blocked, the researcher still could publish the findings on the
Web.
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