One of the best parts of academic life is the flexibility of scholarship. We have the ability for our research and thinking to respond to the times, evolve, and grow. Grinding a single subject area into the ground can be useful, but often leads to stagnation, frustration, and even burnout. There are few professions with the privilege to make unilateral changes to their own work activities. Given that I am returning to research after years of personal issues, administration, academic middle-management, and professional burnout; this is a great and exciting time to make a change.
Why Credibility?
The new research agenda from my Connections Lab is informally titled “The Credibility Project.” The focus is to consider, emphasize, and improve the credibility of professional psychology (i.e., clinical, counseling, school, industrial/organizational, and neuropsychology). Ultimately, the purpose of most professional psychology is to change behavior. And as we know, everyone wants change, but no one wants to change. To make change, professionals must have credibility. Currently, efforts to improve credibility emphasize evidence-based practices and the foundational support of scientific research. For many reasons, this emphasis is inadequate (Shaw & Pecsi, 2021). Credibility requires accuracy, research-based practices, and the best available practice that leads to the most effective possible outcomes. Credibility also requires the perception by clients, parents, teachers, families, communities, and other decision makers that the work is effective and righteous. Both reality and perception are fundamental to changing behavior. And there are now new threats to credibility.
There are external and recent threats to credibility. Several books document the common issue that many people no longer trust experts in any field. The Death of Expertise (Nichols, 2017), The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science (Hotez, 2023), The Certainty Illusion (Caulfield, 2025), and others highlight long-term and growing cynicism about experts and science that furthers cultural mistrust. Moreover, some governments know that science, scholarship, and expertise are required for a flourishing democracy and these governments are making efforts to stamp out free inquiry science or control the direction of scientific discourse and activity. Another issue specific to psychology is that nearly every psychologist seems to have a relative or acquaintance who calls the work we do garbage, wokeness, useless, or worse. Professional psychologists practice in a social context and right now the context is not good.
Professional psychologists often willingly surrender credibility by their actions. Excessive use of jargon, generic and one-size-fits-all interventions, emphasis on terms without social consensus on the definition (e.g., trauma, social justice, fairness), profit motive in practice, and lack of accountability all reduce credibility. The work of professional psychologists can only be judged by improved outcomes for clients. Anything else is bleeding credibility to communities looking for answers and results.
Research has been considered the foundational pillar of professional practice. Yet, most professional psychologists do not read scholarly journals because published manuscripts are typically not relevant to professional practice. Moreover, questionable research practices are nearly everywhere in published papers as peer reviewers and editors often are overworked and do not have the resources to check everything at a critical granular level (Glendinning, & Eaton, 2024; Miyakawa, 2020). The “replication crisis” is more accurately labels a “credibility crisis” (Schiavone & Vazire, 2023). There is even evidence that one in seven papers are not just poorly designed, but use fraudulent data (Heathers, 2024). Research may be considered the tent pole of professional psychology, but the relevance, accuracy, and perceived credibility of research is under threat (Vazire et al., 2022).
The Project
The credibility project is intended to address these issues with four stages of activity, research, and scholarship. Because my profession is school psychology, the primary emphasis will be on school psychology-related topics, but related topics in counseling, clinical, industrial organizational, and neuropsychology will be addressed.
Stage one is the forensic meta-science component. In this stage, influential papers (defined as those with over 50 citations or have had tangible influence on educational, mental health, or medical policy) will be subject to a detailed analysis of the manuscripts. The goal is to improve the credibility by taking the time and energy to re-analyze data, use available methods, and develop resources to audit these important research products (Brown & Heathers, 2017; Heathers, 2025; Lakens, 2025; Parker et al., 2022). There will also be bibliometric studies and efforts to improve research designs.
Stage two is to increase open science focused methods in clinical research. Transparent research is not only helpful for reducing questionable research practices, but increases the perceived credibility of research quality.
Stage three is to develop research consortia. The idea of big team science is to share resources, research expertise, diversity of participants; improve generalizability, increase the statistical power of research, reduce researcher silos, and make all results fully accessible.
Stage four involves outreach, influencing training and student supervision, public communication, implementation science, and policy involvement. Efforts to improve credibility cannot be communicated solely via scholarly journals, but through press releases, media communication, books, YouTube channels, social media, and other sources.
Replication Crisis Essential Reads
This is a lot. I am excited to develop this project with the team at The Connections Lab at McGill University and my other collaborators. I am also grateful for the opportunity to engage in this form of scholarship. I am hoping that The Credibility Project serves as a valuable resource for addressing old and new challenges to the credibility, and thus effectiveness, of professional psychology in our efforts to improve mental health, academic, and other outcomes for our clients and communities. More to come.
