{"id":19299,"date":"2013-03-06T11:26:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T16:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=19299"},"modified":"2013-03-06T11:26:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T16:26:35","slug":"new-initiative-to-encourage-scientists-to-show-their-work-not-just-the-mediagenic-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/03\/06\/new-initiative-to-encourage-scientists-to-show-their-work-not-just-the-mediagenic-results\/","title":{"rendered":"New initiative to encourage scientists to show their work (not just the mediagenic results)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Yong<\/a> on the opening of a new lab in Virginia:<\/p>\n

The field of psychology is going through a period of introspective turmoil. One the one hand, it has never been more popular. Its results lead to attention-grabbing headlines, and fill books that sit happily on bestseller lists. Conversely, some of its own practitioners are starting to ask themselves a difficult question: What proportion of the field\u2019s findings are genuine and reliable insights into the human mind, and what proportion are red herrings produced by questionable research practices and, in rare cases, outright fraud?<\/p>\n

This line of questioning comes from: cases of classic results that cannot be easily reproduced; studies that have documented widespread dodgy practices that lead to false results; the publication of papers that claim the impossible, like evidence for precognition; and the outing of several fraudulent scientists (with a new case emerging literally as I write this paragraph). To some, these signs augur a looming crisis of confidence for psychology. To others, these problems are unrepresentative, and being used to damn a field that generally produces solid, reliable results.<\/p>\n

The debates can get quite energetic, but one of the more calm-headed voices in them is Brian Nosek\u2019s. A psychologist from the University of Virginia, Nosek has been quietly trying to turn the problems into solutions. \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been anything new in all this recent hubbub,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking about these problems since the 60s, but where it stopped was people complaining. There have been a lot of people who have been frustrated at how science is operating but had no outlet for making it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nosek\u2019s solution launches today \u2014 the Center for Open Science<\/a>, a new laboratory at Charlottesville, Virginia. Unlike many new research centres, this one is less about doing great science than about making science greater<\/em>. It will try to foster a new approach to research that will produce more reliable results.<\/p>\n

Show your working<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Center\u2019s values are epitomised in its signature project \u2014 the Open Science Framework<\/a>. It\u2019s a website that lets scientists store and share every aspect of their work, including facets that are often hidden from each other, let alone from the public. Failed experiments, the minutiae of methods, the genesis of ideas\u2026 these are often omitted from published papers or left to languish in personal file drawers. That creates strong biases in the literature, and makes it harder for people to check and reproduce each other\u2019s work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

H\/T to Tim Harford<\/a> for the link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed Yong on the opening of a new lab in Virginia: The field of psychology is going through a period of introspective turmoil. One the one hand, it has never been more popular. Its results lead to attention-grabbing headlines, and fill books that sit happily on bestseller lists. Conversely, some of its own practitioners are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,28,16],"tags":[213,139,101,393],"class_list":["post-19299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-media","category-science","tag-newspapers","tag-psychology","tag-tv","tag-virginia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-51h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19300,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19299\/revisions\/19300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}