Year in review: Scientists tackle the irreproducibility problem
Banking on experimental results that don't hold up to replication is expensive
REPRODUCIBILITY In 2015, several research groups reported the extent to which experimental results in published papers don't hold up to replication.
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Experimental results that don’t hold up to replication have caused consternation among scientists for years, especially in the life and social sciences (SN: 1/24/15, p. 20). In 2015 several research groups examining the issue reported on the magnitude of the irreproducibility problem. The news was not good.
Results from only 35 of 97 psychology experiments published in three major journals in 2008 could be replicated, researchers reported in August (SN: 10/3/15, p. 8). The tumor-shrinking ability of the cancer drug sunitinib was overestimated by 45 percent on average, an analysis published in
