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New paper with @DrSHodgetts on whether lateralisation can explain language and handedness diffs in autism.
Short answer: we dont know.
More important q: should we care?
Very mixed feelings about this paper: buckle your seatbelt, a long thread https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891422220301682
Short answer: we dont know.
More important q: should we care?
Very mixed feelings about this paper: buckle your seatbelt, a long thread https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891422220301682
Whilst its nice to see something that we worked really hard on finally get published after 15 months. If the opportunity arose to write this paper today, Im not sure I’d do it. Not because of the process, but because my feelings on heterogeneity have evolved this year...
I dont want to contribute towards people being called ‘impaired’ because their form of communication isnt spoken language. We did try to write the paper without using pathologising language, but still....
On the other hand, I think these areas need critique. The evidence is often weak, measures and variables poorly defined, and often amount to ‘autistic people are weird, here is a potential explanation’. If youre going to do research in this are, we provide some suggestions.
The review process was also, for want of a better term, a nightmare. 9 months before any feedback. One reviewer had some really constructive comments. We didnt agree with them all (i.e. were asked to use ‘abnormal’ and ‘disorder’. We explained why we didnt, reviewer was happy).
The other reviewer provided a 91 word review, which can be distilled into ‘rewrite using PRISMA, update literature to account for the 9 months this review has taken’. Which seemed incredibly unreasonable given the turnaround time. We didnt feel that we had sufficient time.
Reviewer 1 was happy with the revisions, and our reclassification to a lit review rather than systematic. Reviewer two suggested that our response was ‘defensive’....
Now, as some of you already know, I am currently going through the diagnostic process myself. I havent been completely open about this because a) its nobodies business, and b) its been a lot to get my head around. Im happy to talk about it, but honestly...
I dont have the energy or fucks to counter: ‘but Amy, youre SO GOOD with people’. Yes. I am. Thank you.
So aye, maybe I AM defensive at the suggestion that my very existence is abnormal. But I dont think that was the issue. The absolute audacity of some researchers, to put zero time into a review, and demand a rewrite takes some gaul.
The purpose of review isnt gatekeeping, and it isnt to say ‘well this isn’t the paper I would have written. In the end we agreed with the editor to update the literature to the month of resubmission..
...which led to the inclusion of ONE additional paper. We also added in some caveats about our views on ‘phenotypic stratification’.
So yeah.
Have a read if you like. If you dont have access and want it, email me.
So yeah.
Have a read if you like. If you dont have access and want it, email me.
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