The credibility crisis in research: Can economics tools help?

PLoS Biol. 2017 Apr 26;15(4):e2001846. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2001846. eCollection 2017 Apr.

Abstract

The issue of nonreplicable evidence has attracted considerable attention across biomedical and other sciences. This concern is accompanied by an increasing interest in reforming research incentives and practices. How to optimally perform these reforms is a scientific problem in itself, and economics has several scientific methods that can help evaluate research reforms. Here, we review these methods and show their potential. Prominent among them are mathematical modeling and laboratory experiments that constitute affordable ways to approximate the effects of policies with wide-ranging implications.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biomedical Research / economics*
  • Biomedical Research / ethics
  • Economics, Behavioral / trends
  • Empirical Research
  • Humans
  • Laboratory Personnel / economics
  • Laboratory Personnel / ethics
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Motivation
  • Professional Role
  • Public Policy
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Scientific Misconduct*
  • Social Change
  • Social Sciences / methods
  • Social Sciences / trends
  • Trust*
  • Workforce

Grants and funding

University of Southampton www.southampton.ac.uk (grant number 512188118 SSF). The work of John Ioannidis is supported by an unrestricted gift from Sue and Bob O'Donnell. METRICS is funded by a grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.