Statement from the Executive Board of the Association for Sports Psychology (asp) regarding adherence to scientific principles
The Working Group for Sport Psychology (asp) is committed to the ideal of transparent science. As a scientifically oriented working group, it supports Open Science and Open Access initiatives.
The asp adheres to the scientific principles of (1) excellence, (2) relevance, (3) evidence-based practice, (4) social and ethical responsibility, (5) corrigibility, (6) transparency, and (7) openness in (sport) psychological research. In particular, the last two principles, transparency and openness, are of great importance in light of recent discussions about the replicability of (sport) psychological findings. At the same time, recent developments in the publication of scientific results (e.g., pre-registrations, data repositories) contribute to fulfilling the principles of transparency and openness in a responsible and straightforward manner.
The work of the asp aims to create and maintain structures based on the principles mentioned above. These structures are intended to provide incentives for implementing these principles and to appropriately sanction violations of them.
This means, among other things:
The ASP aims to ensure that students and early career researchers learn early and thoroughly how to conduct scientific work according to these principles.
Measure: asp promotes the integration of open science practices in the training of students and young researchers, ensuring they understand and apply a clear distinction between generating hypotheses and analyzing data. This enhances the transparency and reproducibility of research findings. Additionally, asp is dedicated to creating open educational resources.
The asp plays a role in developing and implementing standards for good scientific practice, while also providing opportunities for ongoing reflection and optimization of these standards.
The asp aims to promote scientific findings in sports psychology, thereby emphasizing the importance of our field in addressing socially relevant issues both within and outside the discipline.
The ASP welcomes the numerous current initiatives aimed at ensuring and enhancing transparency and openness in research (e.g., the initiatives from the Center for Open Science) and supports efforts that improve the quality of scientific (sports) research.