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Most scientific papers are probably wrong!?
from New Scientist.
Well that would certainly undermine the credibility of the scientific community.
The rush to publish could be a factor, as well as publications from questionable work, e.g. cold fusion.
from New Scientist.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7915Most published scientific research papers are wrong, according to a new analysis. Assuming that the new paper is itself correct, problems with experimental and statistical methods mean that there is less than a 50% chance that the results of any randomly chosen scientific paper are true.
John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece, says that small sample sizes, poor study design, researcher bias, and selective reporting and other problems combine to make most research findings false. But even large, well-designed studies are not always right, meaning that scientists and the public have to be wary of reported findings.
Well that would certainly undermine the credibility of the scientific community.
The rush to publish could be a factor, as well as publications from questionable work, e.g. cold fusion.