Editorial Policies for the Publication of Controversial Findings

Armstrong and Hubbard (1991), in a survey of editors of 20 psychology journals, found a bias against the publication of papers with controversial findings. The 16 editors who responded said that they received few papers with controversial findings "during the last two years." When they did receive such papers, the reviewers rejected them. Some of these editors expressed dismay over this situation and said that their referees usually rejected such papers. The study encountered only one instance where the reviewers agreed that a paper with controversial findings should be published. The editor who handled this case was blunt: he picked referees who would agree to its publication.