The false trails laid down by shoddy research are an unforgivable barrier to understanding. Last year researchers at one biotech firm, Amgen, found they could reproduce just six of 53 “landmark” studies in cancer research. The obligation to “publish or perish” has come to rule over academic life. Conversely, failures to prove a hypothesis are rarely even offered for publication, let alone accepted. “Negative results” now account for only 14% of published papers, down from 30% in 1990. Yet knowing what is false is as important to science as knowing what is true. The failure to report failures means that researchers waste money and effort exploring blind alleys already investigated by other scientists. Journals should allocate space for “uninteresting” work, and grant-givers should set aside money to pay for it. economist/news/leaders/21588069-scientific-research-has-changed-world-now-it-needs-change-itself-how-science-goes-wrong
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 19:54:29 +0000
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