The Research
Reproducibility Crisis The wheels of change are in motion, but are they going fast enough?
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Left and right Alexandrina Von Mann
et me ask you a question. What percentage of scientists know: that researchers themselves can’t even published research do you think is reproducible? reproduce their own work. Would people listen when Eighty per cent? Ninety per cent? What if I asked scientists speak the truth if scientists can’t agree on what you how much of published, peer-reviewed research is “true”? Or be OK with governmental or charitable you think should be reproducible? Nearly everyone funding of research? Trust in scientists and scientific inwould say one hundred per cent. stitutions would surely go down. If we can’t effectively Well, I’ve got some bad news: you’re not even manage this crisis the consequences for public trust in close. One prominent report (Begley & Ellis, 2012, science could be dire. Nature) found that, of fifty-three landmark cancer-reSo, what are the underlying causes? “Publish or search studies, just six findings (11%) were reproduc- perish” is a pervading mantra in the common rooms ible. Some weren’t even reproducible in the original of universities and research institutes worldwide. This investigator’s laboratory. These kinds of studies can and idiom illustrates the belief held by researchers young have spawned further research and clinical trials, lead- and old that as academics we must publish often, and ing researchers, and indeed patients, down paths with in high-impact journals, to survive and thrive in our dead ends. Early-stage career research“Researchers themselves fields. This lack of reproducibility in ers, in particular, can attest to that. can’t even reproduce research is known as the Research It’s easy to see how this pressure Reproducibility Crisis. The crisis could lead to conscious and subtheir own work” spans the biological sciences, ecoconscious failures to adhere to nomics, psychology, and chemistry, among others. It good, rigorous, scientific practice. Given the volume of exists, yet most people aren’t aware that it does. As a research published annually, and the incentives for genbiology PhD student, I wasn’t even fully aware of the erating high-impact research (money, publicity, career depth of the issue until I attended the Reproducible progression, even career survival), the crisis we now Research Oxford launch event in January. face is hardly surprising. The unenviable task now before us is that of changWellcome-funded survey of more than 140,000 ing the culture of research and shifting the incentive people in 140 countries found that 74% of peo- from getting research published to getting it right. ple trusted scientists. Imagine if they all knew what
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