Guide to Publication Success: Bad and Good Practices

Training
Published

April 16, 2026

Let’s be honest: academia can feel like a maze with invisible walls. Between the pressure to publish, the fear of “p-hacking” by accident, and the confusing world of impact factors, it’s easy to feel like you’re just guessing your way through.

But what if you could cut through the noise?

This session isn’t just about rules; it’s a first guide to the real academic world. We’ll peel back the curtain on the “dark side” of publishing, expose the tricks that ruin careers, and show you exactly how to build a rock-solid, transparent, and replicable study that actually gets cited.

Let’s turn the “publish or perish” pressure into “publish and thrive”! Oscar Lecuona (PhD) is an Assistant Professor at Complutense University of Madrid. He is a specialist in applied methodology to psychology. He has an extensive teaching and research background in Methodology, Psychometrics, Contemplative Sciences and Health Psychology. He will be our expert at this event!

⚠️Registration is required⚠️ https://forms.gle/UYuno38V5jUsVrrL8

Contents:

  1. Understanding Academic Publishing

    • How peer review works and what drives acceptance.

    • Key factors influencing publication, including result emphasis.

    • Defining high-impact journals and impact factors.

  2. Meta-Science: Exposing Hidden Challenges

    • What is meta-science?

    • Structural issues: positive result bias, publication bias, and “publish or perish” pressure.

    • Impact on Psychology: the replication crisis, lack of transparency, and cultural challenges.

    • Strategies to navigate the darker side of academic publishing.

  3. Questionable Research Practices (QRPs)

    • Avoiding p-hacking, HARKing, and data manipulation/omission.

    • Real-world examples in Psychology (fraud cases, replication failures).

    • How to detect and prevent QRPs in your own work.

    • Ethical, academic, and professional consequences.

  4. Adopting Best Practices

    • Sample Planning: Adequate size, representativeness, and avoiding common biases.

    • Transparency: Preregistration, open data, open materials, and complete reporting.

    • Replicability: Designing studies that others can repeat.

    • Effective Writing: Mastering the IMRaD structure.

  5. Multi-Country and Multi-Lab Collaborations

    • Definition, benefits, and challenges.

    • Examples in Psychology (e.g., Many Labs).

    • How to start collaborating: finding partners, proposing projects, and authorship agreements.