Nonpartisan Education Review (Jan 2016)

Dismissive reviews in education policy research: A list

  • Richard P. Phelps

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 12 – 1

Abstract

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Included in these web pages are the statements—the dismissive reviews—of some prominent education policy researchers. Most of their statements are inaccurate; it is possible that all of them are. Certainly, all of them are misleading. Each linked file includes the dismissive statements, the names of the lead authors (in bold when known) and co-authors, title, source, date, and, page numbers for the statement and hyperlink to the source, when available, all listed in reverse chronological order. “Dismissive review” is the general term. In the “type” column of the files, a finer distinction is made among simply “dismissive”—meaning a claim that there is no or little previous research, “denigrating”—meaning a claim that previous research exists but is so inferior it is not worth even citing, and “firstness”—a claim to be the first in the history of the world to ever conduct such a study. For the most part, I have included statements made by “serial dismissers”, researchers who dismiss repeatedly on a variety of topics. This is done to help counter the argument that they might be innocent, actually did make an effort to look for previous research, and simply could not find it. In most cases they dismiss a research literature that is hundreds or thousands of studies deep. And, when they do that repeatedly across a variety of topics, the odds that their dismissive behavior could be innocent fade to minuscule. - See more at: http://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Resources/DismissiveList.htm#sthash.TXzlmZhZ.dpuf

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