Reproducibility, as the philosopher Karl Popper already wrote down in 1959, is one of the hallmarks of good science. However, over the last few years it has become clear that many studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals are not reproducible. Although most scientists understand the importance of reproducibility, as it turns out, many fail to live up to the rules of the practice itself. How is this possible? And what are the consequences?
In this article the authors discuss a variety of prominent factors in science’s reproducibility problems. First they give an historical account of the value and purpose of reproducibility; second they analyze the ‘crisis’ in reproducibility today. The authors emphasize that reproducibility is not just a scientific issue, but also an ethical one, because irreproducibility undermines public trust in science and scientific progress.
Publication
Title: Reproducibility and research integrity
Authors: Resnik DB & Shamoo AE.
doi: 10.1080/08989621.2016.1257387 (2016)
