How do journals verify data collection and analysis of an article?

[Reva]

Hello,

I'm an MA graduate and future PhD applicant from a non-European, non-American country. I read empirical journal articles in sociology and nearby fields, but I always notice only a description of data collection and analysis and usually no appendices.

Please, how do high-quality publishers verify the claims made in sections dedicated to methods description? Does it happen in the background? How can it happen if the article is produced by international authors? Is the description enough? And in the case of ethical issues, how do they verify the ethics of the research, especially if the researcher is independent? Are the anonymity and no-harm principles enough in social science?

 

Thank you.

[high_hopes]

From what I understand, reviewers may ask for information during the review stage if they have concerns. Some journals also ask for evidence about your research ethics board approval. In political science and some other disciplines, an emerging trend is to upload code and datasets for quantitative work, and some sociologists also do this. But generally there is just an assumption that you did things correctly. This can lead to fraudulent results being reported or allegations of shoddy work. For projects that are more qualitative it can be very difficult to allow reviewers to verify data when participants are promised confidentiality. 

[Reva]

Informative reply. Thank you.