Independent Labs To Verify High-Profile Research Papers 74
ananyo writes "Scientific publishers are backing an initiative to encourage authors of high-profile research papers to get their results replicated by independent labs. Validation studies will earn authors a certificate and a second publication, and will save other researchers from basing their work on faulty results. The problem of irreproducible results has gained prominence in recent months. In March, a cancer researcher at Amgen pharmaceutical company reported that its scientists had repeated experiments in 53 'landmark' papers, but managed to confirm findings from only six of the studies. And last year, an internal survey at Bayer HealthCare found that inconsistencies between published findings and the company's own results caused delays or cancellations in about two-thirds of projects. Now, 'Reproducibility Initiative,' a commercial online portal is offering authors the chance of getting their results validated (albeit for a price). Once the validation studies are complete, the original authors will have the option of publishing the results in the open access journal PLoS ONE, linked to the original publication."
Always been a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
That's always been a problem; the journals usually want to publish new work, and aren't interested in publishing work that just repeats something already done.
I'm puzzled by this sentence, though: "Once the validation studies are complete, the original authors will have the option of publishing the results in PLoS ONE, linked to the original publication. "
They're saying that the people who did the work replicating the experiment don't get the credit for their work, but instead the authors of the paper that they're trying to replicate do?
And, what if the new work doesn't replicate the results? Does it get published? Credited to whom?
Ratios (Score:5, Interesting)
>53 'landmark' papers, but managed to confirm findings from only six of the studies.
That's 89 percent crap. (88.7%)
Sounds about right.
And as I get older, it seems that this observation holds true more every day, in everything.
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BMO