Apparently there are replication issues in biology as well as psychology. The Wall Street Journal has an article today about pharmaceutical companies attempting to develop drugs based on published findings only to find that they cannot replicate the findings.
>From the article: Drug manufacturers rely heavily on early-stage academic research and can waste millions of dollars on products if the original results are later shown to be unreliable. Patients may enroll in clinical trials based on conflicting data, and sometimes see no benefits or suffer harmful side effects. There is also a more insidious and pervasive problem: a preference for positive results. Unlike pharmaceutical companies, academic researchers rarely conduct experiments in a "blinded" manner. This makes it easier to cherry-pick statistical findings that support a positive result. In the quest for jobs and funding, especially in an era of economic malaise, the growing army of scientists need more successful experiments to their name, not failed ones. An explosion of scientific and academic journals has added to the pressure. The entire article can be found here (subscription may be required) http://tinyurl.com/7ytjq7n I apologize if this has come through before. I tried sending it through the WSJ website thinking that doing so would allow nonsubscribers to read the entire article and have not seen it come through. Joe Joseph J. Horton, Ph. D. Box 3077 Grove City College Grove City, PA 16127 724-458-2004 jjhor...@gcc.edu<mailto:jjhor...@gcc.edu> In God we trust, all others must bring data. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=14571 or send a blank email to leave-14571-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
