Q&A: John Ioannidis Talks Transparency in Biomedical Literature

The Stanford University researcher discusses a new study on measures such as data sharing and funding disclosures.

Written byShawna Williams

| 3 min read

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John Ioannidis is a Stanford University epidemiologist known for his blunt critiques of the scientific enterprise, such as the 2005 paper “Why Most Published Research Findings are False.” In a new report out today (November 20) in PLOS Biology, he and colleagues follow up on an earlier study in which they found authors weren’t so good on measures of transparency and reproducibility, such as sharing their data and protocols and disclosing funders.

The new analysis, which scrutinizes 149 randomly selected biomedical research papers published between 2015 and 2017, finds some improvements. We spoke with Ioannidis to get his take on the results.

The Scientist: What did you set out to do in this latest study, and what, to you, are its main takeaways?

John Ioannidis: We had previously assessed the same indicators in papers published in the biomedical literature from 2000 to 2014. We wanted to ...

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Meet the Author

Shawna Williams
Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previously, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, and in the communications offices of several academic research institutions. As news director, Shawna assigned and edited news, opinion, and in-depth feature articles for the website on all aspects of the life sciences. She is based in central Washington State, and is a member of the Northwest Science Writers Association and the National Association of Science Writers.
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