July 27th, 2012
The Chronicle of Higher Education has obtained a copy of a highly critical audit showing that Mark Regnerus’s widely discussed paper on gay and lesbian parenting underwent a flawed peer-reviewed process which failed to find significant methodological problems and conflicts of interest. BTB was the first to review many of those methodological problems here on the day the study first appeared in the journal Social Science Research. According to The Chronicle:
Like Regnerus, the editor of Social Science Research, James D. Wright, has been at the receiving end of an outpouring of anger over the paper. At the suggestion of another scholar, Wright, a professor of sociology at the University of Central Florida, assigned a member of the journal’s editorial board—Darren E. Sherkat, a professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale—to examine how the paper was handled.
Sherkat was given access to all the reviews and correspondence connected with the paper, and was told the identities of the reviewers. According to Sherkat, Regnerus’s paper should never have been published. His assessment of it, in an interview, was concise: “It’s bullshit,” he said.
The audit criticized the paper’s identification of “lesbian mothers” and “gay fathers,” which was at the heart of our criticism of the report when the paper first appeared. Sherkat found the those labels for the categories of families that Regnerus created “extremely misleading.” He added: “Reviewers uniformly downplayed or ignored the fact that the study did not examine children of identifiably gay and lesbian parents, and none of the reviewers noticed that the marketing-research data were inappropriate for a top-tier social-scientific journal.” Sherkat found that that fact alone should have “disqualified it immediately” from publication.
The audit also found conflicts of interests among the reviewers and states that “scholars who should have known better failed to recuse themselves from the review process,” according to The Chronicle. Three of the six reviewers were on record as opposing same-sex marriage and were “not without some connection to Regnerus.” Sherkat did not however find that the paper had been inappropriately expedited as I questioned. But Sherkat did question the paper’s funding — $785,000 from the conservative Whiterspoon Institute and Bradly Foundation — and the study’s timing auspicious timing ahead of the 2012 elections, were serious concerns.
“There should be reflection about a conservative scholar garnering a very large grant from exceptionally conservative foundations,” he writes in the audit, “to make incendiary arguments about the worthiness of LGBT parents—and putting this out in time to politicize it before the 2012 United States presidential election.”
Journals are judged and scored according to what’s known as an “Impact Factor” by Journal Citation Reports. The Impact Factor identifies the number of times articles are cited by other journals over a period of time. Higher Impact Factors are earned when other authors more frequently cite journal articles in their published papers, and the higher the Impact Factor, the greater the journal’s prestige. Social Science Research’s Five-Year Impact Factor is 1.994, which is considered low for social science research journals. Wright admitted to Sherkat that he believed the Regnerus paper would generate a high level of discussion and possibly elevate the journal’s Impact Factor, and admits that “perhaps this prospect caused me to be inattentive to things I should have kept a keener eye on.”
Wright told The Chronicle that he has experienced “sleepless nights” and angry emails, both from colleagues and strangers. Wright told The Chronnicle that he supports civil rights for gays and lesbians, and found accusations that he was fostering an anti-gay climate “hurtful and preposterous.” (You can read one email exchange between Wright and a BTB reader here.)
Editor James Wright provided a copy of the audit to The Chronicle, and it will appear in the November edition of Social Science Research. The September issue of the bi-monthly journal has already been issued and posted online.
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
Christopher
July 27th, 2012
As heartening as it is that the flaws in Regenerus’s study are being seriously and critically examined, the fact is that the study is still out there. While this will significantly diminish its impact (as well as potentially diminishing the journal’s impact factor) the study will likely continue to be cited in court cases and elsewhere as evidence that same-sex couples aren’t fit to be parents.
The fact that it’s been pretty thoroughly discredited from the day it was published won’t change the fact that it was published in a respected journal and written by a professor who gets more respect than he deserves has only served to complicate the issue.
I think Regnerus should do the honorable thing and repudiate his conclusions, preferably in the same journal, but, having read some of his defenses, I won’t hold my breath.
Priya Lynn
July 27th, 2012
Regarding the timing of the release of this study before the 2012 elections, it would appear now that they blew it by releasing it enough months in advance that it could be studied and its serious flaws exposed a number of months before the elections. If they had known in advance that their pile of crap would be shredded prior to the election they might have chosen to release it one month or so before the election to allow time for the “findings” to be publicized, but not refuted.
Steve
July 27th, 2012
It’s not just the election, but it was released right in time to be used in the end stage of the DOMA court battles. It’s more useful for the religious right there, although courts are also fat more likely to take note of the criticism
AMPGlass
July 27th, 2012
I love Dr. Sherkat… My wife is a Masters Degree student studying under him. He is on the Editorial Committee for Social Science Research, and mentioned how it is funny and ironic that he signed a protest letter that ended up on his desk.
Muscat
July 27th, 2012
Based on the audit I would expect SSR to retract the study. I guess we’ll see.
Ben In Oakland
July 27th, 2012
Thanks to scott rose and To Straightgrandmother. They’ve been the one’s that have been pursuing this.
TampaZeke
July 27th, 2012
The Journal loses all credibility in reviewing studies AFTER publishing them.
It’s akin to trying to put the bullet back into the gun AFTER you’ve shot a passerby.
MattNYC
July 28th, 2012
@TampaZeke
Reminded of Twain’s line, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
jpeckjr
July 28th, 2012
I am interested in seeing how the Univ of Texas, where Regnerus teaches, handles this embarrassment. And which hyper-conservative university offers him a position as chair of its sociology department.
ebohlman
July 30th, 2012
Steve: Spot on. It looks like the publication of the study was deliberately rushed so that it could be cited in litigation.
Regnerus’s study appears to be on the same trajectory as Andrew Wakefield’s notorious MMR/autism study (which, remember, was scientifically debunked well before it was shown to be downright fraudulent). That one also was intended as a weapon in litigation (and unfortunately it worked earlier this year in an Italian case). At least Regnerus’s study probably won’t result in any deaths, unlike Wakefield’s.
StraightGrandmother
July 30th, 2012
Perhaps the readers here could make a Victim Impact Statement?
Editor of the Journal Social Science Research
Dr. James Wright
James.Wright@ucf.edu
The Research Integrity Officer (RIO) at The University of Texas at Austin is Dr. Robert A. Peterson, associate vice president for research. You may contact Dr. Peterson at rap@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-9438, or you can reach his assistant at 512-471-2877.
The Research Integrity Officer has responsibility for overseeing the inquiry and investigative process and ensuring compliance of all parties with this policy in the conduct of inquiries and investigations of misconduct in science and other scholarly research.
Scott Rose
August 5th, 2012
Hello: Please consider signing and sharing this petition. The petition demands that the Editorial Board of the journal Social Science Research retract the notorious, invalid, defamatory, anti-gay Regnerus gay-parenting “study.†According to the journal’s own Peer Review Policy, it takes MONTHS for the editor to locate experts to carry out peer review of submissions on esoteric topics like gay parenting. But, SSR’s editor James Wright did NOT get topic experts, the BIGOTS he had do the peer review had CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, and Regnerus’s submission was accepted for publication in only 5 ½ weeks, LESS TIME than the journal usually spends just to LOCATE expert peer reviewers. Be sure to read the full petition text inside the petition at this link: http://tinyurl.com/8q7ync4
Leave A Comment