The Adoption of Open Science Practices in Communication Research: Taking Stock of the Field in 2025

Jasmijn Kruijt, Chaoyi Gao, Xiaojing Ke, Sofie Přibylová, Wenyuan Yang and Bert N. Bakker
Additional contact information
Jasmijn Kruijt: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Chaoyi Gao: Graduate School of Communication, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Xiaojing Ke: Graduate School of Communication, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Sofie Přibylová: Graduate School of Communication, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Wenyuan Yang: Graduate School of Communication, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Bert N. Bakker: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Media and Communication, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: Five years after Dienlin et al.’s (2021) agenda-setting call for communication research to adopt open science practices, this study assesses the current state of adoption within the field. Through a manual content analysis of articles published in 2025 across 20 leading communication journals, we evaluated the use of Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) research practices. Results show that adoption remains limited. While research materials are shared more frequently, data and analytic code are rarely made available, and overall transparency remains inconsistent. Quantitative studies score higher on transparency indicators than qualitative studies, likely reflecting the limited applicability of TOP standards to qualitative research paradigms. Explicit discussion of deviations from preregistrations is present in approximately half of preregistered studies, and the absence of such discussion does not necessarily imply that deviations occurred. Yet room for improvement remains. We argue that voluntary adoption may be insufficient and discuss the need for stronger institutional incentives to establish open science as a normative standard.

Keywords: communication research; open science; preregistration; reproducibility; research transparency; TOP guidelines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/12178 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:meanco:v14:y:2026:a:12178

DOI: 10.17645/mac.12178

Access Statistics for this article

Media and Communication is currently edited by Raquel Silva

More articles in Media and Communication from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().