Dataset for: Fifty years of research on questionable research practices in science: Quantitative analysis of co-citation patterns

Questionable research practices (QRPs) have been the focus of the scientific community amid greater scrutiny and evidence highlighting issues with replicability across many fields of science. To capture the most impactful publications and the main thematic domains in the literature on QRPs, this study uses a document co-citation analysis. The analysis was conducted on a sample of 341 documents that covered the past 50 years of research in QRPs. Nine major thematic clusters emerged. Statistical reporting and statistical power emerged as key areas of research, where systemic-level factors in how research is conducted are consistently raised as the precipitating factors for QRPs. There is also an encouraging shift in the focus of research into open science practices designed to address engagement in QRPs. Such a shift is indicative of the growing momentum of the open science movement, and more research can be conducted on how these practices are employed on the ground and how their uptake by researchers can be further promoted. However, the results suggest that, while pre-registration and registered reports receive the most research interest, less attention has been paid to other open science practices (e.g., data and methods sharing).

Methods
All data were downloaded from the Scopus platform on 6 February 2023. Data were retrieved using the string TITLE-ABS-KEY(``questionable research practice*"). The files contains information for 341 documents published between 1974–2023.