A Brief Review of Research that Questions the Impact of Questionable Research Practices

Research on questionable research practices (QRPs) includes a growing body of work that questions whether they are as problematic as commonly assumed. This article provides a brief and selective review that considers some of this work. In particular, the review highlights work that questions the prevalence and impact of QRPs, including p-hacking, HARKing, and publication bias. According to this work, QRPs may not provide the best explanation for the replication crisis, and they may not always be problematic. In particular, p-hacking, HARKing, and publication bias may be less impactful than expected.