To Have the Best Interest at Heart: Analyzing the Match Between Laypersons’ Interests and Publication Activity in Psychology
There is a growing public interest in science and, by extension, in psychology, and human behavior. Yet, detailed investigations on whether academic psychological research activity matches lay interests are still scarce. In addition, while lay-friendly communication of research findings becomes cont...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.899430/full |
| _version_ | 1818263231403130880 |
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| author | Mark Jonas André Bittermann Anita Chasiotis Tom Rosman |
| author_facet | Mark Jonas André Bittermann Anita Chasiotis Tom Rosman |
| author_sort | Mark Jonas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There is a growing public interest in science and, by extension, in psychology, and human behavior. Yet, detailed investigations on whether academic psychological research activity matches lay interests are still scarce. In addition, while lay-friendly communication of research findings becomes continually more important, it is unclear which subfields of psychological research are particularly interesting to laypeople. To address these research gaps, we carried out an explorative study of psychological literature included in two large reference databases, one with a German (PSYNDEX) and one with an international (PsycInfo) scope. The years of 2018–2020 were scanned for articles belonging to one of 20 topic areas assessed as most interesting by lay participants in a previous study. We determined and compared the share of empirical research and research syntheses for each topic area and database and computed rank correlations between lay interest and academic publication volume. Results suggest a positive relationship between lay interest and academic publication activity specifically for research syntheses. Additionally, topic areas associated with clinical psychology offered a large share of research syntheses, while other topic areas such as “Psychodynamics” or “Industrial & Organizational Psychology” encompassed a smaller share of syntheses. Finally, we outline perspectives for long-term monitoring of psychology-related lay interests. Thus, the present study connects academic activity with the public interest in psychology by identifying and quantifying research syntheses for topics garnering the most lay interest. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T19:15:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7b887b7c0354455f8510873acc1525a5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T19:15:44Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-7b887b7c0354455f8510873acc1525a52022-12-22T00:14:44ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-06-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.899430899430To Have the Best Interest at Heart: Analyzing the Match Between Laypersons’ Interests and Publication Activity in PsychologyMark JonasAndré BittermannAnita ChasiotisTom RosmanThere is a growing public interest in science and, by extension, in psychology, and human behavior. Yet, detailed investigations on whether academic psychological research activity matches lay interests are still scarce. In addition, while lay-friendly communication of research findings becomes continually more important, it is unclear which subfields of psychological research are particularly interesting to laypeople. To address these research gaps, we carried out an explorative study of psychological literature included in two large reference databases, one with a German (PSYNDEX) and one with an international (PsycInfo) scope. The years of 2018–2020 were scanned for articles belonging to one of 20 topic areas assessed as most interesting by lay participants in a previous study. We determined and compared the share of empirical research and research syntheses for each topic area and database and computed rank correlations between lay interest and academic publication volume. Results suggest a positive relationship between lay interest and academic publication activity specifically for research syntheses. Additionally, topic areas associated with clinical psychology offered a large share of research syntheses, while other topic areas such as “Psychodynamics” or “Industrial & Organizational Psychology” encompassed a smaller share of syntheses. Finally, we outline perspectives for long-term monitoring of psychology-related lay interests. Thus, the present study connects academic activity with the public interest in psychology by identifying and quantifying research syntheses for topics garnering the most lay interest.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.899430/fulltopic interestresearch topicspublication trendsliterature analysislay summariesscience communication |
| spellingShingle | Mark Jonas André Bittermann Anita Chasiotis Tom Rosman To Have the Best Interest at Heart: Analyzing the Match Between Laypersons’ Interests and Publication Activity in Psychology Frontiers in Psychology topic interest research topics publication trends literature analysis lay summaries science communication |
| title | To Have the Best Interest at Heart: Analyzing the Match Between Laypersons’ Interests and Publication Activity in Psychology |
| title_full | To Have the Best Interest at Heart: Analyzing the Match Between Laypersons’ Interests and Publication Activity in Psychology |
| title_fullStr | To Have the Best Interest at Heart: Analyzing the Match Between Laypersons’ Interests and Publication Activity in Psychology |
| title_full_unstemmed | To Have the Best Interest at Heart: Analyzing the Match Between Laypersons’ Interests and Publication Activity in Psychology |
| title_short | To Have the Best Interest at Heart: Analyzing the Match Between Laypersons’ Interests and Publication Activity in Psychology |
| title_sort | to have the best interest at heart analyzing the match between laypersons interests and publication activity in psychology |
| topic | topic interest research topics publication trends literature analysis lay summaries science communication |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.899430/full |
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