Best Practices in Data Collection and Preparation: Recommendations for Reviewers, Editors, and Authors

Abstract

We offer best-practice recommendations for journal reviewers, editors, and authors regarding data collection and preparation. Our recommendations are applicable to research adopting different epistemological and ontological perspectives—including both quantitative and qualitative approaches—as well as research addressing micro (i.e., individuals, teams) and macro (i.e., organizations, industries) levels of analysis. Our recommendations regarding data collection address (a) type of research design, (b) control variables, (c) sampling procedures, and (d) missing data management. Our recommendations regarding data preparation address (e) outlier management, (f) use of corrections for statistical and methodological artifacts, and (g) data transformations. Our recommendations address best practices as well as transparency issues. The formal implementation of our recommendations in the manuscript review process will likely motivate authors to increase transparency because failure to disclose necessary information may lead to a manuscript rejection decision. Also, reviewers can use our recommendations for developmental purposes to highlight which particular issues should be improved in a revised version of a manuscript and in future research. Taken together, the implementation of our recommendations in the form of checklists can help address current challenges regarding results and inferential reproducibility as well as enhance the credibility, trustworthiness, and usefulness of the scholarly knowledge that is produced.

Research methods in international business: The challenge of complexity

“…There have been many articles on best practices in responsible research, including several by Herman Aguinis that are particularly appropriate for IB researchers (Aguinis et al, 2017 , 2018 , 2019 ; Bergh et al, 2017 ). In addition, Anne Tsui and colleagues have been actively encouraging business and management scholars to join RRBM (Responsible Research in Business and Management; https://www.rrbm.network ) and adopt RRBM best practices for their research.…”

“…Many scholars have written about the methodological challenges that can bedevil scholarship in IB and other disciplines and have recommended best practices for dealing with these challenges. For example, see the wide variety of methodology challenges discussed in Eden, Nielsen and Verbeke ( 2020 ) and recent papers by Aguinis and co-authors (Aguinis, Cascio & Ramani, 2017 ; Aguinis, Hill & Bailey, 2019 ; Aguinis, Ramani & Alabduljader, 2018 ; Bergh, Sharp, Aguinis & Li, 2017 ).…”

Leader–Member Exchange Fosters Beneficial and Prevents Detrimental Workplace Behavior: Organizational Identification as the Linking Pin

“…Second, we extend the literature on social identity by incorporating OI as a central predictor of both CWB and OCB-thereby, we answer specific calls by Lee et al (2015) as particularly the link of OI and detrimental work behavior (i.e., CWB) is not yet well established empirically [for notable exceptions, see Norman et al (2010), Al-Atwi and Bakir (2014), and Evans and Davis (2014)]. Third, we present four complementary study designs to test our theoretical model in a robust and triangulating fashion [for methodological in-depth discussions, see Turner et al (2017), Aguinis et al (2019), and Podsakoff and Podsakoff (2019)]-in doing so, we offer a consistent empirical support for our theoretical model among employees from Switzerland and the United States in two field studies (studies 1 and 2) as well as in two online experiments (studies 3 and 4; Figure 1).…”

Methodological practices in international business research: An after-action review of challenges and solutions

“…Regarding motivation, researchers receive highly valued incentives for publishing in top journals, regardless of an article's methodological limitations (Aguinis, Cummings, Ramani & Cummings, 2020b;Rasheed & Priem, 2020). Second, regarding KSAs, given the fast pace of methodological developments, many reviewers are unable to update their methodological repertoire and may not be as familiar with the latest methodological innovations (Aguinis, Hill & Bailey, 2020). Similarly, researcher KSAs are affected by financial constraints and the decreased number of opportunities for doctoral students and more seasoned researchers alike to receive university-sponsored state-of-the-science methodological training (Aguinis, Ramani & Alabduljader, 2018).…”