FLAWS IN THE SYSTEM

Published today in the inaugural issue of Nature Human Behavior is a paper authored by John Ioannidis and his colleagues both in and outside of the Stanford University School of Medicine. Titled A Manifesto for Reproducible Science, the paper outlines ways to improve science.

According to the authors, “Improving the reliability and efficiency of scientific research will increase the credibility of the published scientific literature and accelerate discovery.” If the measures suggested in this manifesto are adopted by both the scientific community and its supporters, the future could hold greater possibilities of innovation and discovery.
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Currently, scientific research standards and expectations are falling short. In this manifesto, Ioannidis highlights how “low sample size, small effect sizes, data dredging (also known as P-hacking), conflicts of interest, large numbers of scientists working competitively in silos without combining their efforts, and so on, may conspire to dramatically increase the probability that a published finding is incorrect.”
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