Reporting Ethical Practices in Journal Articles

Abstract

Little attention has focused on the reporting of ethical research practices in journal articles. In Study 1, published articles in 2 psychopathology journals were reviewed to ascertain the types of ethical research information that were reported. In Study 2, a survey was sent to authors in Study 1 to determine which ethical practices they engaged in, if they reported this information, and reasons for not including this information in their article. In general, there is a great variability regarding the types of ethical research practices reported in journal articles. Commonly cited reasons for not including ethical research practice information in the articles included the need for brevity, belief that it was common practice, and lack of relevance for the project. These results suggest that there is no standard practice for reporting research practices in journal articles and great variability in the implementation of procedures that are generally considered standard.

Surface Facial Electromyography Reactions to Light-Relevant and Season-Relevant Stimuli in Seasonal Affective Disorder

“…The results of Rohan et al (2004) and Sigmon et al (2002) suggest that there is an underlying psychophysiologic reactivity to light-and season-relevant stimuli in seasonality populations. The emotional specificity of this reactivity may be more effectively captured through the highly sensitive, surface facial EMG measurement, given the prevailing evidence that facial EMG is an especially sensitive measure of emotion in clinical, nonseasonal depression (Schwartz et al, 1976a).…”

“…These researchers compared control participants to individuals with subsyndromal SAD (S-SAD; reverse vegetative symptoms during the winter that are less severe than in SAD). Similarly, Sigmon, Whitcomb-Smith, Boulard, and Kendrew (2002) found increased skin conductance reactivity in seasonal samples. Specifically, participants with SAD evidenced more significant skin conductance responses (SCRs) and greater SCR magnitude when compared to nonseasonal, nondepressed controls.…”

“…In the Rohan et al (2004) study, an S-SAD sample demonstrated increased psychophysiological arousal (i.e., SCR magnitude) to low light stimuli (presumed to be unpleasant) when measuring electrodermal response. In addition, Sigmon et al (2002) demonstrated increased skin conductance responses and SCR magnitude in SAD, S-SAD, and SAD-HX groups when exposed to videos of winter scenes (assumed to be more unpleasant than summer scenes), when compared to nonseasonal depression and control groups.…”

“…To examine changes in subjective report of depressed mood using the Depression -Dejection subscale of the Profile of Mood States questionnaire (POMS; McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1971), change scores were computed from the time participants watched a video depicting winter scenes to the time they observed summer scenes (i.e., wintersummer POMS; Sigmon et al, 2002). This computation of change scores was necessary given that there were significant baseline differences in depressed mood across groups.…”

“…Facial EMG measurements in SAD and S-SAD samples should be measured using a paradigm similar to the Rohan et al (2004) and Sigmon et al (2002) method.…”