scientific method

Science doesn’t require faith, but fostering trust in its practitioners can help the public move past unfounded doubts.

In service of an arbitrary threshold, p-values often lead researchers to make poorly supported claims and ignore interesting but insignificant results, scientists argue.

Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan’s new book recounts the tale of researchers striving to understand an ancient molecular machine that is essential for all life.

The American Statistical Association offers guidance on best practices for the oft-misused tool.

Research suggests that a combination of mental power and conventional medicine may be better than either alone.

In the introduction to the book, author Jo Marchant describes an interaction with a mother who embraced homeopathy as the jumping off point for writing about the scientific realities of alternative medicine.

Researchers should pay closer attention to the diets they use to study obesity in mice, experts advise.

The Karolinska Institute has rejected the conclusions of an earlier, independent investigation, finding regenerative medicine researcher Paolo Macchiarini not guilty of scientific misconduct.

Should there be standard protocols for how researchers attempt to reproduce the work of others?

Stanford University starts new center to study how scientific research can be improved.

Mice become stressed in the presence of male, but not female, experimenters, triggering a physiological response that dampens pain.

The federal agency speaks out about how to improve the quality of scientific research.

Sage Bionetworks aims to show that transparency and sharing are key to ensuring research reproducibility.

How visual materials and methods can save scientists time and money.

Today’s technologies have opened all sorts of experimental avenues. Deciding which questions are best to pursue requires a certain degree of restraint.

The journal is sharpening its review of life science papers and giving authors additional space to document more detailed methods.

Psychologists have launched a new organization to encourage openness and improve the reliability of findings in their own field and beyond.

The problem threatens progress and stems from both a lack of attention to clear discourse and a scientific culture not focused on critical challenges.

A trending hashtag on Twitter lets researchers reveal the lighter side of scientific methodology.