I recently suggested that the time was right to begin building a “CERN for psychological science.” My hope was that like-minded researchers would join me in a collaborative initiative to increase multi-site data collection with the ultimate goal of increasing the pace and quality of evidence accumulation in the field. The response has been immediate, positive, enthusiastic, and a bit overwhelming (in a good way!).  We have quickly assembled a global (and constantly expanding) team of psychological science laboratories. By vote of the team, we have renamed our “CERN for Psych” project to avoid direct comparisons to physics.

We are The Psychological Science Accelerator:  A Distributed Laboratory Network.

27 days

In just 27 days, 106 labs from over 30 countries and 5 continents have expressed interest in the network and have signed up to “stay in the loop.”  Even more promising is the fact that 58 of those labs (more than 2 per day!) have already committed to contributing to our initial data collection projects in 2018. We have divided these labs into 2 data collection teams, with one collecting data in North America and the other collecting data globally for initial projects.

We have built it, will they come?

We now turn this data collection capacity over to researchers around the world and welcome submissions for studies to include in these initial data collection projects. These call for studies documents (north american doc here and global doc here) have been posted as HAVES on StudySwap for others to review and download.

We will accept proposals until October 11^th. The team will then discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and feasibility concerns of the proposed studies. Ultimately, we will vote as a team on which studies to include and make our final selections by November 1^st.

We welcome submissions from all areas of psychological science. A few key points to consider:

• The proposed studies can test novel hypotheses or focus on the replication of previous findings.
• We may collect data for multiple “bundled” studies if all parties deem them to be compatible in a single laboratory session, and a mutually agreeable study order can be found.
• We will include at least one positive control effect at the end of the data collection session.
• Feasibility of data collection will be a primary component of our evaluation for these first projects.
• Studies will be pre-registered, even if the research is exploratory in nature.

How to Get Involved

The two projects listed above for 2018 are just the beginning for the Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA). We hope to build a general purpose network where researchers can propose exciting new ideas and important replication studies, where the network laboratories can then democratically decide which studies are most worthy of data collection resources, and where we then collect large amounts of data in labs all around the world.

To join the network or just stay informed on our activities, fill out this 3-item google form.

To add your lab to those collecting data on the initial projects in 2018, please email me at cchartie@ashland.edu

To propose a study for these initial projects, please review the call for studies, complete the submission form, and email your submission to me at cchartie@ashland.edu

If the first 27 days of the Psychological Science Accelerator are any indication of things to come, we have initiated a project that can have a meaningful and lasting impact on psychological science. Please join us!

Dr. Christopher R. Chartier

cchartie@ashland.edu

Associate Professor of Psychology

Ashland University International Collaboration Research Center