Does the glut of retractions mean science is in crisis? Hardly
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/does-glut-retractions-mean-science-crisis-hardly
EXCERPT: . . . headlines paint a troubling picture of manipulated data and fabricated research findings, resulting in thousands of retractions. And that is just what has been uncovered so far.
As scientific “sleuths”, who focus on cleaning up the research literature, we are often accused of weakening public trust in science. But blame for mistrust lies squarely with the bad actors who have contaminated the scientific literature with what our colleague Smut Clyde has termed “parascience”: outputs that superficially resemble science, with its field-specific jargon, images and tables, but lack its core features, such as peer review or any actual underlying experiments.
The ripple effects are profound when we can no longer rely on the integrity of the scientific record. Medical advancements stall, infrastructure innovations falter and public health initiatives lose credibility. But is science itself in crisis? Hardly.
The scientific method provides the same solid foundation for knowledge as it always has. What we are witnessing is simply an inevitable and necessary process of “course correction” as scientists become aware of the infiltration of these bad actors and bad actions and work to eradicate them... (MORE - details)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(paper) Statistics in biology: a survey of the three major multidisciplinary journals
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.04.636422v1.full
INTRO: Statistics are notoriously wrong in biological journals including the major ones (1-3). While medical journals have regularly increased their standards in the past 50-60 years, biological journals have maintained the same low level of statistical analysis.
The amount of money involved in health industry and in reimbursement of medical expenses as well as the pressure of regulatory agencies are likely a major cause of the rigorous approach in medical journals.
Statistics courses are usually provided in medical schools and most medical journals have consultant statisticians who are systematically or on-demand involved in the reviewing process. Conversely, most biologists have a low background in statistics and even consider statistics negligible if not simply annoying. This attitude causes major mistakes in articles that may induce erroneous scientific and ethical conclusions.
For example, a frequent mistake consists to sample one mouse, seed several plates and consider the data obtained as biological repeats rather than technical replicates. Experiments involving animals are particularly sensitive to these mistakes. This may pose ethical and scientific issues. Therefore, the present study was performed with the aim to quantify the most important statistical problems encountered in the three major multidisciplinary journals... (MORE - details)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(paper) Open minds, tied hands: Awareness, behavior, and reasoning on open science and irresponsible research behavior
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08989621.2025.2457100#abstract
- ABSTRACT - Background. Knowledge on Open Science Practices (OSP) has been promoted through responsible conduct of research training and the development of open science infrastructure to combat Irresponsible Research Behavior (IRB). Yet, there is limited evidence for the efficacy of OSP in minimizing IRB.
Methods. We asked N=778 participants to fill in questionnaires that contain OSP and ethical reasoning vignettes, and report self-admission rates of IRB and personality traits.
Results. We found that against our initial prediction, even though OSP was negatively correlated with IRB, this correlation was very weak, and upon controlling for individual differences factors, OSP neither predicted IRB nor was this relationship moderated by ethical reasoning. On the other hand, individual differences factors, namely dark personality triad, and conscientiousness and openness, contributed more to IRB than OSP knowledge.
Conclusions. Our findings suggest that OSP knowledge needs to be complemented by the development of ethical virtues to encounter IRBs more effectively... (MORE - details)
_
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/does-glut-retractions-mean-science-crisis-hardly
EXCERPT: . . . headlines paint a troubling picture of manipulated data and fabricated research findings, resulting in thousands of retractions. And that is just what has been uncovered so far.
As scientific “sleuths”, who focus on cleaning up the research literature, we are often accused of weakening public trust in science. But blame for mistrust lies squarely with the bad actors who have contaminated the scientific literature with what our colleague Smut Clyde has termed “parascience”: outputs that superficially resemble science, with its field-specific jargon, images and tables, but lack its core features, such as peer review or any actual underlying experiments.
The ripple effects are profound when we can no longer rely on the integrity of the scientific record. Medical advancements stall, infrastructure innovations falter and public health initiatives lose credibility. But is science itself in crisis? Hardly.
The scientific method provides the same solid foundation for knowledge as it always has. What we are witnessing is simply an inevitable and necessary process of “course correction” as scientists become aware of the infiltration of these bad actors and bad actions and work to eradicate them... (MORE - details)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(paper) Statistics in biology: a survey of the three major multidisciplinary journals
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.04.636422v1.full
INTRO: Statistics are notoriously wrong in biological journals including the major ones (1-3). While medical journals have regularly increased their standards in the past 50-60 years, biological journals have maintained the same low level of statistical analysis.
The amount of money involved in health industry and in reimbursement of medical expenses as well as the pressure of regulatory agencies are likely a major cause of the rigorous approach in medical journals.
Statistics courses are usually provided in medical schools and most medical journals have consultant statisticians who are systematically or on-demand involved in the reviewing process. Conversely, most biologists have a low background in statistics and even consider statistics negligible if not simply annoying. This attitude causes major mistakes in articles that may induce erroneous scientific and ethical conclusions.
For example, a frequent mistake consists to sample one mouse, seed several plates and consider the data obtained as biological repeats rather than technical replicates. Experiments involving animals are particularly sensitive to these mistakes. This may pose ethical and scientific issues. Therefore, the present study was performed with the aim to quantify the most important statistical problems encountered in the three major multidisciplinary journals... (MORE - details)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(paper) Open minds, tied hands: Awareness, behavior, and reasoning on open science and irresponsible research behavior
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08989621.2025.2457100#abstract
- ABSTRACT - Background. Knowledge on Open Science Practices (OSP) has been promoted through responsible conduct of research training and the development of open science infrastructure to combat Irresponsible Research Behavior (IRB). Yet, there is limited evidence for the efficacy of OSP in minimizing IRB.
Methods. We asked N=778 participants to fill in questionnaires that contain OSP and ethical reasoning vignettes, and report self-admission rates of IRB and personality traits.
Results. We found that against our initial prediction, even though OSP was negatively correlated with IRB, this correlation was very weak, and upon controlling for individual differences factors, OSP neither predicted IRB nor was this relationship moderated by ethical reasoning. On the other hand, individual differences factors, namely dark personality triad, and conscientiousness and openness, contributed more to IRB than OSP knowledge.
Conclusions. Our findings suggest that OSP knowledge needs to be complemented by the development of ethical virtues to encounter IRBs more effectively... (MORE - details)
_
