We all make mistakes and, if you believe medical scholar John Ioannidis, scientists make more than their fair share. By his calculations, most published research findings are wrong.
This is an interesting article which repeats the research findings of Dr. Ioannidis and others. I carry a healthy respect for the difficulty that scientists face find in their search for verifiable science. Mother Nature grudgingly gives up nuggets of knowledge only after a lot of work and rework. Below is the link to the original report by Dr. Ioannidis and another link that was provided as recommended reading in the WSJ article.
Dr. John Ioannidis argued that false findings may be the majority of published research claims, in “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” in the PLoS Medicine journal, in August 2005.
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In another PLoS Medicine article earlier this year, Ramal Moonesinghe and Muin Khoury at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrated that the likelihood of a published research result being true increases when that finding has been repeatedly replicated in multiple studies. The article is: “Most Published Research Findings Are False — But a Little Replication Goes a Long Way.”