Toward a consensus on research transparency for HCI

During the past few years, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented amount of research being conducted and published in a very short timeframe to successfully analyze SARS-COV-2, its vaccines, and its treatments. Concurrently, the pandemic also highlighted the limitations of our publication system, which enables and incentivizes rapid dissemination and questionable research practices.

While HCI research is usually not a foundation for life-and-death decisions, we face similar problems. HCI researchers and CHI community members have long criticized a lack of methodological and statistical rigor and a lack of transparent research practices in quantitative and qualitative works. Research transparency can alleviate these issues, as it facilitates the independent verification, reproduction, and—wherever appropriate—replication of claims. Consequently, we argue that the CHI community needs to move toward a consensus on research transparency.