Standards for trustworthy, transparent, reproducible research — and the tools to meet them. Curated from the HRD and leadership methodology literatures.
The reform context
Both HRD and leadership have undergone an open-science reckoning: cross-sectional findings failing in longitudinal designs, weak measurement, and irreproducible results. These resources set the standards and give you the checklists.
Rigor — self-assessment tools
- Reio (2021) — Ten Research Questions — an analytic tool for critiquing any empirical study.
- Reio (2023) — the four Rs: rigor, relevance, replicability, refutability.
- Park, Kim, & Han (2024) — HRD research-method rigor; what reviewers look for.
- Wulff et al. (2023) — a catalog of 20+ common methodological mistakes. A pre-submission checklist.
Ethics & integrity
- Werner (2022) — academic integrity in HRD scholarship.
- Russ-Eft (2018) — the AHRD Standards on Ethics and Integrity (2nd ed.).
- Yoon et al. (2021) — ethics standards applied to scholarly misconduct cases.
Open science, transparency & replication
- Antonakis (2017) — the landmark reform editorial: the “five diseases”; the pivot to registered reports and null results.
- Aguinis, Li, & Foo (2024) — the Research Transparency Index (RTI).
- Gerpott, Briker, & Banks (2024) — registered-report formats.
- Carsten et al. (2023) — registered reports + replication infrastructure; three replication myths debunked.
Data quality (where rigor quietly fails)
- Goldammer et al. (2020) — detecting careless survey responding.
- Ingels et al. (2023) — survey nonresponse caveat: agreement indices can look fine while masking who responded.
Use this page as a checklist
- Designing? → Reio’s Ten Questions + the four Rs.
- Writing up? → Wulff’s mistake catalog + the RTI.
- Human subjects / authorship? → the AHRD Standards.
Sources: HRDR “Research Methodology and Theory Building” cluster; Leadership “Causal Inference & Methodology” cluster.
📄 Download this guide as a PDF
References
Aguinis, H., Li, Z. A., & Foo, M. D. (2024). The research transparency index. The Leadership Quarterly, 35(4), 101809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101809
Antonakis, J. (2017). On doing better science: From thrill of discovery to policy implications. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(1), 5–21.
Carsten, M. K., Clapp-Smith, R., Haslam, S. A., Bastardoz, N., Gooty, J., Connelly, S., & Spain, S. M. (2023). Doing better leadership science via replications and registered reports. The Leadership Quarterly, 34, 101712.
Gerpott, F. H., Briker, R., & Banks, G. C. (2024). New ways of seeing: Four ways you have not thought about registered reports yet. The Leadership Quarterly, 35, 101783.
Goldammer, P., Annen, H., Stöckli, P. L., & Jonas, K. (2020). Careless responding in questionnaire measures: Detection, impact, and remedies. The Leadership Quarterly, 31, 101384.
Ingels, D., Spitzmuller, C., Thomas, C. L., Kazmi, M. A., Allen, N. J., & Hysong, S. J. (2023). Team-member role characteristics as predictors of response behavior on team-related surveys. Small Group Research, 54(3), 335–368.
Park, J. J., Kim, Y., & Han, S. J. (2024). The landscape of research method rigor in the field of human resource development: An analysis of empirical research from 2016 to 2023. Human Resource Development Review, 23(3), 345–375. https://doi.org/10.1177/15344843241255410
Reio, T. G., Jr. (2021). The ten research questions: An analytic tool for critiquing empirical studies and teaching research rigor. Human Resource Development Review, 20(3), 374–390.
Reio, T. G., Jr. (2023). An editor’s learning journey: Lessons for moving the field forward. Human Resource Development Review, 22(3), 321–332.
Russ-Eft, D. F. (2018). Second time around: AHRD standards on ethics and integrity. Human Resource Development Review, 17(2), 123–127.
Werner, J. M. (2022). Academic integrity and human resource development: Being and doing. Human Resource Development Review, 21(2), 249–257.
Wulff, J. N., Sajons, G. B., Pogrebna, G., Lonati, S., Bastardoz, N., Banks, G. C., & Antonakis, J. (2023). Common methodological mistakes. The Leadership Quarterly, 34, 101677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2023.101677
Yoon, S. W., Han, S. H., & Cho, Y. (2021). The power of ethics and standards when the scholarly system fails. Human Resource Development Review, 20(2), 136–142.