Retrieving Arguments and Support after Publication: Archiving Links in Communication Research

摘要

As scholars in the field of communication, replication of our findings may contribute to their robustness and help us avoid potential dead ends (Hunter, 2001; McEwan et al., 2018). The advantages to replication are many including increased confidence in research findings and the advancement of scientific theory (Benoit & Holbert, 2011; Rosenthal, 1991). However, it is important to have the ability to follow the logic of a scholar who proposes a research question or hypothesis and builds a case to support that research or hypothesis based on the understanding and availability of the literature referenced. Stated differently, is it possible that through reading the same materials, a different scholar may identify the same problem? This problem fits under the classification of what has been referred to as inferential reproducibility (Goodman et al., 2016), the ability to make claims based on the logic and evidence of a study; to achieve this, access to the same reference materials is necessary. Much of what is referenced in the field of communication studies is originally published in peer-reviewed journals. However, there has been a continued increase in references to popular press items, news stories, and other types of web resources.