Alternative Strategies for Claiming Confidence in Research

Researchers are increasingly challenged by this question: On what basis can researchers claim confidence in making research progress? Here, we categorize studies that base their reliance on one of three different strategies to answer this question. One involves establishing an effect where progress is the extent of support that an effect will be observed in subsequent studies that follow similar or conceptually close procedures. A second strategy involves a theory of the effect where progress is the extent that the mechanism or process by which an effect occurs can be understood sufficiently to identify key conditions under which the effect will or will not occur. A third strategy entails constructing a theoretical framework, where progress is the extent that a theory explains why effects occur at a level that transcends individual effect paradigms. We discuss issues that should be explicitly considered in selecting a strategy for justifying claims of research progress. Although there is potential for synergy across studies where the strategies build on one another, each strategy represents an alternative basis for claiming confidence in a study.