PIXABAY, OPENCLIPARTVECTORSJust about half of all basic life science research is flawed to the point that it cannot be replicated, according to an analysis published in PLOS Biology yesterday (June 9). These “irreproducible” studies end up costing around $28 billion annually in the U.S.
“While false positives are an inevitable part of scientific research, our study shows that the current level of irreproducibility in preclinical research is very costly,” study coauthor Timothy Simcoe, an economist at the US Council of Economic Advisors, said in a press release.
The analysts used previous estimates of irreproducibility to arrive at their number. Poor quality reagents and materials were the biggest cause of flaws in experiments, mucking up more than one third of preclinical studies, the team found. Poor study design and insufficient analysis or reporting each afflicted a little more than a quarter of studies, while improper laboratory protocols took down one out of every 10 studies. “The four categories are decent, but the estimates are off,” John Ioannidis, a Stanford University ...
