UT Review: “Wackadoo"Gay Parents Children’s Study Should Have Been Disqualified Not Published

  
A University of Texas researcher stirred up controversy last month with a study that raised doubts about the parenting abilities of gay couples. But the journal Social Science Research never should have published his report, according to an internal draft audit.

The audit concluded that the journal published the study because its peer reviewers failed to note crucial shortcomings in methodology. The study had "serious flaws and distortions that were not simply ignored, but lauded in the reviews," sociologist Darren E. Sherkat wrote in the audit.

The journal provided a copy of the audit to the American-Statesman on Friday. The Chronicle of Higher Education first reported on the audit late Thursday.

The study by Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at UT, found that the now-adult children of gay parents reported significantly different, and often worse, life experiences than the children of married, heterosexual biological parents.

Sherkat, a professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, took issue with Regnerus' category of "gay parents." For example, the study's definitions could have identified a woman as a "lesbian mother" regardless of how long she had a relationship with another woman and regardless of whether the two raised the child as a couple. That alone should have disqualified the paper, Sherkat told the Statesman.

"Throughout the paper, Regnerus points to the social and psychological deficits of children of gays and lesbians; yet, the study found only a handful of children of gays or lesbians," Sherkat wrote in the audit.

The study's framing was "wackadoo," Sherkat told the Statesman, later adding, "It was just a crappy study."

Regnerus, in an email to the Statesman on Friday, said, "Given that the audit's original purpose was not to assess the study itself but the process by which it traveled through the journal's peer and editorial review, it makes little sense for me to comment on it because the peer review process is not one over which authors have control."

Regnerus also noted that Sherkat wrote in the audit that "there were no gross violations of editorial procedures."

The audit also asserted that three of six peer reviewers were on record as opposing gay marriage. Two of the six, according to Sherkat, have previously collaborated with Regnerus, although not in the past 10 years.

He described the three reviewers who are not publicly conservative as "social science superstars."

James D. Wright, editor of Social Science Research, said he asked Sherkat, a member of the journal's editorial staff, to conduct the audit after scholars raised questions about how the journal handled the report.

Separately, UT is conducting an inquiry to determine whether the study warrants a full-fledged scientific misconduct investigation, according to UT Provost and Executive Vice President Steven Leslie. Tara Doolittle, a spokeswoman for the university, said the review began June 25 and would take no more than 60 days.

"We are confident the group conducting the current inquiry will look at a wide range of factors, including this audit of the Social Science Research journal," Leslie said in a statement.

The university launched the inquiry after a New York City-based freelance writer, Scott Rosensweig, made a public allegation of scientific misconduct.

Such inquiries are undertaken when formal complaints are made to certain university officials, including the president, the provost, deans or department chairs, UT said.

By Tara Merrigan
 and Ralph K.M. Haurwitz

Contact Tara Merrigan at 445-3702 
Contact Ralph K.M. Haurwitz at 445-3604

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