How to Make More Published Research True -- Essay in PLOS Medicine

How to Make More Published Research True
John P. A. Ioannidis
Plos Medicine - Published: October 21, 2014
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001747

Summary Points:

• Currently, many published research findings are false or exaggerated, and an estimated 85% of research resources are wasted.
• To make more published research true, practices that have improved credibility and efficiency in specific fields may be transplanted to others which would benefit from them—possibilities include the adoption of large-scale collaborative research; replication culture; registration; sharing; reproducibility practices; better statistical methods; standardization of definitions and analyses; more appropriate (usually more stringent) statistical thresholds; and improvement in study design standards, peer review, reporting and dissemination of research, and training of the scientific workforce.
• Selection of interventions to improve research practices requires rigorous examination and experimental testing whenever feasible.
• Optimal interventions need to understand and harness the motives of various stakeholders who operate in scientific research and who differ on the extent to which they are interested in promoting publishable, fundable, translatable, or profitable results.
• Modifications need to be made in the reward system for science, affecting the exchange rates for currencies (e.g., publications and grants) and purchased academic goods (e.g., promotion and other academic or administrative power) and introducing currencies that are better aligned with translatable and reproducible research.

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