Notable Paper: Reproducibility in Science

Reproducability in Science

This article by C. Glenn Begley and John P.A. Ioannidis is not specifically vision related, but is more generally applicable to research integrity and is well worth a read, in particular the following paragraph:

“What has shaken many in the field is not that investigators are unable to precisely reproduce an experiment. That is to be expected. What is shocking is that in many cases, the big idea or major conclusion was not confirmed simply when experi- ments were performed by the same investigators when blinded to their test samples versus control samples.2 The explanation for this was evident when the precise methodology of the experiments was reviewed. Investigators typically performed their experiments in a nonblinded fashion, so they were able to see what they were anticipating to see, and their research bias was thus able to be confirmed.18 Observer bias has long been recognized to be a problem in preclinical studies and beyond, so this result should not be surprising.19 Confirmation bias in scientific investigation unavoidably makes even the best scientists prone to try to find results or interpretations that fit their preconceived ideas and theories.20,21”


Also perhaps relevant is this cute Youtube animation on Biostatistics vs. Lab Research.