The scientific research enterprise today is in something of a quandary. Various empirical studies show that 80-90% of the claims coming from scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals fail to replicate. (To simplify that statistic, that’s equivalent to only a 10-20% success rate for recipes from a cookbook.) For the most part this is due to flaws in the design of experiments, unidentified variables or sloppiness in performing them, but sometimes it is the result of nefarious intentions leading to fraud or misconduct. Read more.
