Tag Archives: Forbes

Nature magazine wants to know: Can science be trusted?

I received an invitation from Nature Publishing Group to participate in an online survey, Can science be trusted? (aka, the Reproducibility Study). This seems to be a response to issues raised over the last few years in Nature, Science and other journals about the ability to reproduce scientific research and get the same results as the original study. Writing for Forbes magazine, Henry I. Miller (a physician and molecular biologist, is the Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution; he was the founding director of the FDA’s Office of Biotechnology) co-wrote with  S. Stanley Young (Assistant Director for Bioinformatics at the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and an adjunct professor of statistics at North Carolina State University, the University of Waterloo and the University of British Columbia) a Jan. 8, 2014 article , The Trouble With ‘Scientific’ Research Today: A Lot That’s Published Is Junk, where he reviews some recent articles about ‘science’ and the lack of reproducibility. The Economist also covered the reproducibility issue in an Oct. 19, 2013 article, Trouble at the lab.

Getting back to Nature’s survey, which is for scientists only, from the Oct. 13, 2015 email notice,

Dear nature.com user,

The news team at Nature is conducting a survey to gauge scientists’ attitudes towards the ‘reproducibility crisis’ – the idea that many scientific results cannot be reproduced. We would like to find out your views on it, and how it might be tackled.

To take part in the survey please click here.

The survey will take less than 15 minutes to complete. To show our appreciation in your participation, once you complete the survey you will have the chance to enter a prize draw to win a $500 American Express Gift Card, or an equivalent charitable donation of your choice.

As members of the Market Research Society (MRS) we ensure the highest standards of professional research and privacy in using the information that our audience provides (Visit the MRS Code of Conduct page for more information).

Please contact us at audienceresearch@nature.com if you have any further questions about the survey itself or the on-going research programme.

A link to the survey can also be found on Nature’s Challenges in Reproducible Research webpage where you’ll also find links to an editorial and various features on the topic.