More on Reproducible research

Earlier this week, Joel Achenbach covered reproducible research in a Washington Post article.  This follows hot on the heels of the Science News series mentioned in my last post.  This is a topic that has received much discussion within the scientific literature, such as in Nature and Science, and bled into the popular press, for instance, with an Economist cover story in the fall of 2013, and a National Public Radio piece last fall by Richard Harris.  Achenbach's article doesn't have anything particularly new for those who have been following this thread over the last few years (including readers of this blog).  However, this topic deserves attention from major news organizations such as the Post and the Economist.  The taxpayers, after all, are bankrolling much of scientific research, and deserve to be kept in the loop on how their money is spent, or mis-spent as the case may be.

I also want to call readers' attention to an opinion piece last fall by John Ioannidis (2014).  It is a forward looking piece on how to make research more reproducible.  Much of the paper is focused on the infrastructure of the scientific community, including the incentive systems.  Ultimately this is indeed where change must occur.  He also has a list of "Some research practices that may help increase the proportion of true research findings."  Some of these are not explained in detail in this paper.  Third to last on his list is "Improvement of study design standards," an issue I feel is paramount.  Unfortunately Ioannidis does not go into great detail on this particular point, though it could deserve a paper all of its own.

My feeling is that, despite all the attention, reproducible research is not yet a big deal in the scientific community.  Scientists, and those who fund them, aren't angry enough yet to push for serious changes.  Until that happens, DTLR will not rest in promoting reproducible research practices.

Reference

John P. A. Ioannidis, 2014:  How to make more published research true.  PLoS Medicine, 11 (10):  e1001747.

Science news on reproducible research

Science News offers an excellent two-part examination of the woes of reproducible research by Tina Hesman Saey.  Here is part one and here is part two.  Highly recommended.

Let there be a year of light

Happy New Year, readers!  DTLR joins in celebrating 2015 as UNESCO's "International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies" (IYL 2015).  The year 2015 will also be the anniversary of several optics achievements, such as the publication of Maxwell's equations in 1865, celebrated in January's issue of Nature Photonics.  The IYL 2015 organizers also point to the following anniversaries:

• 1015:  Ibn Al Haythem's Book of Optics.
• 1815:  Fresnel and the wave nature of light.
• 1915:  Einstein's general relativity - light in space and time.
• 1965:  Cosmic microwave background; Charles Kao and optical fiber technology.

DTLR wishes readers a happy new year and Happy International Year of Light.