Does Sociology Need Open Science?

Abstract

Reliability, transparency, and ethical crises pushed many social science disciplines toward dramatic changes, in particular psychology and more recently political science. This paper discusses why sociology should also change. It reviews sociology as a discipline through the lens of current practices, definitions of sociology, positions of sociological associations, and a brief consideration of the arguments of three highly influential yet epistemologically diverse sociologists: Weber, Merton, and Habermas. It is a general overview for students and sociologists to quickly familiarize themselves with the state of sociology or explore the idea of open science and its relevance to their discipline.

Keywords

• open science
• crisis of science
• sociology legitimation
• transparency
• science community
• p-hacking