© The Dot Connector Magazine
Scientific research may be in decline across the globe because of growing pressures to report only positive results, new analysis suggests.
A study by the University of Edinburgh examined more than 4,600 scientific research papers published between 1990 and 2007 and
found a steady decline in studies in which the findings contradicted scientific hypotheses.Papers reporting null or negative findings are in principle as useful as positive ones, but they attract fewer readers and citations, so scientific journals tend to reject them.
It is acknowledged among scientists that this problem might be worsening, because competition in science is growing and jobs and grants are given to scientists who publish frequently in high-ranking journals. Many researchers, therefore, have speculated that
scientists will increasingly pursue predictable outcomes and produce positive results through re-interpretation, selection or even manipulation of data.
The study examined research papers in which a hypothesis had been tested, in various scientific disciplines. Over the period studied, positive results grew from around 70 per cent in 1990 to 86 per cent in 2007.
The growth was strongest in economics, business, clinical medicine, psychology, psychiatry, pharmacology and molecular biology.The findings, published in
Scientometrics, also show that papers reporting positive results are more frequent in the US than in Europe.
Dr Daniele Fanelli of the University's Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation, who led the study, said: "Either journals are rejecting more negative results, or scientists are producing more positives. It is most likely a combination of both.
"Without negative evidence in the literature, scientists might misestimate the importance of phenomena and waste resources replicating failed studies. The higher frequency of US papers reporting positive findings may suggest that problems linked to
competition are greater in the US than elsewhere."
Comment: It's obvious to anyone with two neurons firing that our society is in a very dire state. Lies are pervasive in every aspect of our lives, and science is not an exception. Read the
latest issue of the
Dot Connector magazine to understand to what extent greed, ego, power machinations and other psychopathic influences manifest themselves in science and in scientific community, and how we learned to accept the corruption to our own collective detriment.
Leave it up to the Scottish to take a stand for integrity.
I hope all those involved who still have some bone in their backs speak out on this, and continue to until the lid pops off the pot of deception in which the potion designed to snooker this society by controlling its scientists has been brewing.
I am growing sick of the foul fumes.