Science Exchange Spearheads Reproducibility Initiative
September 3, 2012
Reuters recently reported on a new fact checker for scientific studies in the article “More Trial, Less Error – An Effort to Improve Scientific Studies.”
According to the article, After discovering that scientific literature, ranging from social psychology to cancer biology, is filled with false findings and erroneous conclusions, Science Exchange recently announced that it will be embarking on a “Reproducibility Initiative,” aimed at improving the trustworthiness of published papers.
This is how it works:
“The initiative’s 10-member board of prominent scientists will match investigators with a lab qualified to test their results, said Elizabeth Iorns, Science Exchange’s co-founder and chief executive officer. The original lab would pay the second for its work. How much depends on the experiment’s complexity and the cost of study materials, but should not exceed 20 percent of the original research study’s costs. Iorns hopes government and private funding agencies will eventually fund replication to improve the integrity of scientific literature.
The two labs would jointly write a paper, to be published in the journal PLoS One, describing the outcome. Science Exchange will issue a certificate if the original result is confirmed.”
I was shocked to learn that Bayer Healthcare reported that its scientists could not reproduce some 75 percent of published findings in cardiovascular disease, cancer and women’s health. If this initiative goes through it should be a huge benefit to the healthcare industry and scientists everywhere.
Jasmine Ashton, September 03, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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