The Center of Trial and Error

Creating transparent and responsible scholarship.

We are a non-profit organization experimenting with innovative publishing activities. The Center provides a space for independent reflection on academic practice and stimulates students and early career researchers to disrupt existing scholarly infrastructures.

What Do We Do?

Discussing

Discussing

We define “trial and error” as methodological flaws and conceptual errors in research.

The Center facilitates a reflective discussion on these issues with our blog and by encouraging empirical research and cross-disciplinary conceptual work.

Publishing

A drawing of a book

Publishing

We aim to publicize the lessons of research struggles, publish answers to the question “what went wrong?”, and independently host non-profit pre-press services.

Two branches of the Center, the Journal of Trial and Error and the Publishers of Trial and Error, are dedicated to this mission.

Training

A drawing of a lecture

Training

Institutional change results from well-equipped young people, creating a mass from below.

As such, training is one of our most important activities. We focus efforts to educate students on the systemic and organisational structures of science and scholarship to make change a practical reality.

What's New?

B

Breaking Bubbles
Art and Science in a Fractured World

Peter Bergeijk
Opinion|March 30, 2025
J

Commentary
Running the Risk

Samantha CopelandStuart Firestein
open call|March 17, 2025
J

Running the risk
On serendipity in comparative research across cultures

Koen Beumer
open call|March 17, 2025
J

Commentary
The Popcorn Effect

Wendy Ross
open call|March 03, 2025
B

Cultures of Trial and Error
Identifying and Overcoming Barriers in Science Correction

Melpomeni (Melina) AntonakakiMady BarbeitasCandida F. Sánchez Burmester
Culture of Trial and Error|February 27, 2025
B

Video
Professor Peter Bergeijk's 'On the inaccuracies of economic observations'

Marcel Hobma
News|January 30, 2025
J

Editorial from our Incoming Editor in Chief
Introducing Open Peer Review, Streamlined Review, and a Trial of the Registered Report Format

Sarahanne FieldStefan D.M. GaillardDavid Joachim GrüningAlex Job Visser
editorial|December 23, 2024
J

A Smiling Paradox
Exploring the Constructed Nature of Emotions A Reflection on the Relationship Between Smiling in Selfies and Distress

Anne Margit ReitsemaSanne NijhofOdilia Laceulle
reflection|December 11, 2024