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+--- Thread: The replication crisis is good for science (research community) (/thread-6962.html)
The replication crisis is good for science (research community) - C C - Apr 9, 2019
https://theconversation.com/the-replication-crisis-is-good-for-science-103736
EXCERPT: Science is in the midst of a crisis: A surprising fraction of published studies fail to replicate when the procedures are repeated. [...] Is this bad for science? It’s certainly uncomfortable for many scientists whose work gets undercut, and the rate of failures may currently be unacceptably high. But, as a psychologist and a statistician, I believe confronting the replication crisis is good for science as a whole.
First, these replication attempts are examples of good science operating as it should. They are focused applications of the scientific method, careful experimentation and observation in the pursuit of reproducible results. [...] While there are signs that scientists are indeed reforming their ways, there is still a long way to go. [...] Finally, the replication crisis is helping improve scientists’ intuitions about statistical inference. Researchers now better understand how weak designs with high uncertainty – in combination with choosing to publish only when results are statistically significant – produce exaggerated results. In fact, it is one of the reasons more than 800 scientists recently argued in favor of abandoning statistical significance testing.
[...] The breathtaking possibility that a large fraction of published research findings might just be serendipitous is exactly why people speak of the replication crisis. But it’s not really a scientific crisis, because the awareness is bringing improvements in research practice, new understandings about statistical inference and an appreciation that isolated findings must be interpreted as part of a larger pattern. Rather than undermining science, I feel that this is reaffirming the best practices of the scientific method. (MORE - details)
RE: The replication crisis is good for science (research community) - Syne - Apr 9, 2019
It's largely a problem for the humanities...which are often too agenda driven to worry about replicability.