The journal "PLoS Biology" has an article that does an economic analysis of irreproducible research. Here is the reference:
Freedman LP, Cockburn IM, Simcoe TS (2015) The Economics of Reproducibility in Preclinical Research. PLoS Biol 13(6): e1002165. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002165 The article is available for free on the PLoS website; see: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002165 The mass media has started to cover this article and one website is "The Scientist"; see: http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/43205/title/The-Cost-of-Irreproducible-Research/ Quoting the Scientist article: |Just about half of all basic life science research is flawed |to the point that it cannot be replicated, according to an |analysis published in PLOS Biology yesterday (June 9). |These "irreproducible" studies end up costing around |$28 billion annually in the U.S. So, as psychologists, should we be worried? Consider: (1) The limited analysis provided in the article indicates that about 50% of preclinical biological research is irreproducible (expect this number to change as more information about more research becomes available; if you're a pessimist, it will go up, if you are an optimist, it will go down, if you are a realist, you're wondering WTF!?!?!). The good news is no matter how bad psychological research is, it probably has a much lower rate of failure to replicate. (2) The cost of the irreproducible research is about $24B/year. The good news: given the low cost of most psychological research, the cost associated with irreproducible psychological research is probably much, much less. So, what can we say about the field of psychological research relative to preclinical biological research? Simple: Don't worry, be happy. ;-) -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. If you are happy and giving off happy odors, remember that this is a real black eye for scientific research and serves as evidence for people who are anti-science. Moreover, we must be doing something very wrong if our students and colleagues are doing such messed up research. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=45338 or send a blank email to leave-45338-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
