From The Verge: Despite the prestige that comes with research being published in peer-reviewed journals like Nature, recent investigation into published studies have found many to be irreproducible or flat-out wrong. Indeed, one groundbreaking stem cell study was recently called into question after researchers were unable to replicate its conclusions, while 120 computer-generated papers were … Continue reading New lab to study bad science
Category: Peer Review
Will reputation metrics open scientific publication?
That is the contention of Richard Price, the founder of Academia.edu. Aaron Swartz was determined to free up access to academic articles. He perceived an injustice in which scientific research lies behind expensive paywalls despite being funded by the taxpayer. The taxpayer ends up paying twice for the same research: once to fund it and a … Continue reading Will reputation metrics open scientific publication?
Blogs and academic research: A timely story
The other day, Paul Krugman wrote about the reduced relevance of formal academic publication given the nature of web distribution and discourse. It just so happens that today marks the completion of a personal story of mine that illustrates how blog discussion can lead to published academic research. However, it also demonstrates Krugman’s main point — that … Continue reading Blogs and academic research: A timely story
Cultural clashes in science
On This American Life this week, is a podcast devoted to the subject of “So Crazy it might just work.” Now if you are interested in scientific discovery, its culture and openness, go and listen to the first half of that podcast right now. I’ll wait. OK, all done? I’m not going to discuss the prime number story although … Continue reading Cultural clashes in science
Online science and the speed of review
Steve Landsburg alerted me to an amazing set of interactions in Mathematics this week. A very distinguished Princeton professor, Ed Nelson, announced what may have been the most profound mathematical result of the century (right up there with Godel’s Theorem last century): that the Peano axioms in mathematics were inconsistent. Nelson announced his finding on a mailing list: I … Continue reading Online science and the speed of review
How useful is peer review?
One of the themes in this week’s blog discussion surrounding Paul Krugman’s post on the subject was whether it is worth waiting around for peer review. As I’ve tried to explain, the notion of journals as gatekeepers was largely fictional even 25 years ago. And I have a somewhat jaundiced view of how the whole refereeing/publication system … Continue reading How useful is peer review?
Contribution Economy 