The National Science Foundation reports that accusations that a peer reviewer appropriated an experimental or theoretical idea or result from a research proposal or paper he or she was sent to evaluate, is the largest category of scientific misconduct complaints that it receives. Concerns about reproducibility and replicability have been expressed in both scientific and popular media. A. The media emphasis on such values as the novel and the spectacular which, if translated into more funds for this type of study, can distort the development of science. Assessing Unpublished Literature. Merton's norms, as expressed by Ziman(12) Highly surprising and unexpected results are often not replicated by other researchers. Unpublished but recorded studies (such as dissertation abstracts, conference programs, and research aggregation websites) may become easier for reviewers to access with computerized databases and with the availability of preprint servers. In psychology, an estimated 75 percent of reviews included unpublished research (Rothstein, 2006). This has become an even more problematic issue since Rescher first wrote his essay in 1965. lithium and higher relative amounts of other alloying elements, which made it a more complex system but better controlled (Quadrant B), with improved replicability. Furthermore since different laboratories frequently make nearly simultaneous, independent discoveries of the same scientific result or phenomenon, the question arises as to the ethical justification for giving all of the credit to the one who just happens to be first to submit the results for publication. In a systematic review (see Chapter 7) of the drugs effectiveness, 23 clinical trials were reviewed; the statistical significance of 22 of the 23 studies did not reach the criterion of p < 0.05, yet the cumulative review of the set of studies showed a large effect (a reduction of 16% [3] in the odds of death among women of all ages assigned to tamoxifen treatment [Peto et al., 1988, p. 1684]). They randomly assigned participants to a version closer to the original or to Ebersole et al.s version. Both of these methods are commonplace, so neither researcher thought to mention the details of the mixing process (Harris, 2017). This is contrary to the essence of the scientific approach to knowledge, which seeks to engender a critical/skeptical attitude and recognizes that all of the results of science are to be viewed as subject to further verification and revision. Others believe that there has been an excessive focus on Type I errors (i.e., false positives) in hypothesis testing at the possible expense of an increase in Type II errors (i.e., false negatives, or failing to confirm true hypotheses) (Fiedler et al., 2012; Finkel et al., 2015; LeBel et al., 2017). Confirmatory research begins with identifying a hypothesis based on observations, exploratory analysis, or building on previous research. Ziman concludes that: "science is all these things and more. London, UK: Paladin, 1977. Environmental Ethics 17, 341-358 (1995). Others often see these values as your character traits. Several tools are being developed to compare a distribution of results to what that distribution would look like if all claimed effects were representative of the true distribution of effects. As discussed by Rescher, there is good reason to be concerned about premature publicity about findings that have not been accepted as valid by the scientific community. In 2010, economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff published an article that showed if a countrys debt exceeds 90 percent of the countrys gross domestic product, economic growth slows and declines slightly (0.1%). Johnson, L. A Morally Deep World. While your childhood may have engrained some values in you, your thoughts and actions can also consciously form others. If the published literature is biased, this method would inappropriately reject valid results. The techniques, discussed below, are funnel plots, a p-curve test of excess significance, and assessing unpublished literature. (2018, p. 14): For studies reporting statistically significant results, we treated as successful replications for which the replication 95 percent CI [confidence interval] was not lower than the original effect size. Defining your companys core values can shape your core mission behind selling products or services. Your list of core values ultimately answers the question: What do I value most in this world? Sign up for email notifications and we'll let you know about new publications in your areas of interest when they're released. 4 There is risk of missing a new discovery by rejecting data outliers without further investigation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986. Some would argue that focusing on replication of a single study as a way to improve the efficiency of science is ill-placed. A scientist may be convinced that the results of a study are valid, and may have significant, perhaps even urgent, social value, although they do not quite meet the often rigid standards set by his or her peers. This completes our discussion of ethical issues related to the practice of science under the headings in Rescher's essay. Rescher mentions the bitter disputes that have arisen over the years with regard to decisions about who should receive credit for a particular discovery or invention. O'Neill, J. Ecology, Policy, and Politics: Human Well-Being and the Natural World. They assert that scientists, because of their special knowledge, and because of the support they demand from society, have a social obligation to concern themselves with the uses that society makes of science, and to help the lay public make informed choices about technological issues. 1. You have authorized LearnCasting of your reading list in Scitable. 31 labs attempted to replicate a study by Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990). Further discussion of ethics and values issues related to the "doing" and "using" of science will be found in connection with the examples used in Chapters 2 and 3, and in more detail in association with the case studies presented in Chapter 4. In contrast, intrinsic value is not substitutable or replaceable (Callicott 2006). Do you enjoy reading reports from the Academies online for free? The results of the massive international Human Genome Project will further expand the need to confront a long list of extremely controversial social uses of this work. Other ethics and values issues related to research methods include such questions as whether a double-blind protocol is needed in cases where subjective interpretations of research data may influence experimental results. Beyond intrinsic value: Pragmatism in environmental ethics. Some efforts to assess the extent of non-replicability in scientific research directly measure rates of replication, while others examine indirect measures to infer the extent of non-replication. For example a content personalization system may add a share or like button under articles. One example would be EPA's default assumption that all adults weigh 70 kg. In other words, studies that are performed in such highly standardized environments result in local truths with little external validity (Richter et al., 2009). aFrom Cova et al. While it is uncontroversial that all organisms have a good of their own, there are a variety of views regarding which organisms' good or interests people ought to care about. for example, to ask science to determine whether or not abortion is acceptable. Others have found some differences according to discipline (Grieneisen and Zhang, 2012). Policies and practices aim to accomplish goals. Among studies of replication that are available, there is no uniform approach across scientific fields to gauge replication between two studies. He suggested the proper question is How efficient is the scientific enterprise in generating reliable knowledge, what affects that reliability, and how can we improve it?, Surveys of scientists about issues of replicability or on scientific methods are indirect measures of non-replicability. In psychology, Quadrant A includes studies of basic sensory and perceptual processes that are common to all human beings, such. According to the natural-historical value view, natural entities, including species and some ecosystems, have intrinsic value in virtue of their independence from human design and control (Katz 1992) and their connection to human-independent evolutionary processes (Rolston 1986). The final point above is reinforced by a recent special edition of the American Statistician in which the use of a statistical significance threshold in reporting is strongly discouraged due to overuse and wide misinterpretation (Wasserstein et al., 2019). Natural law is a philosophical theory that states that humans have certain rights, moral values, and responsibilities that are inherent in human nature. In other replication studies, teams of researchers performed multiple replication attempts on a single original result, or many-to-one comparisons (see e.g., Klein et al., 2014; Hagger et al., 2016; and Cova et al., 2018 in Table 5-1). When the researchers from the two labs sat side by side to conduct the experiment, they discovered that one lab was stirring the cells gently while the other lab was using a more vigorous shaking system. From the outside, people often perceive core values as your character or morality. Moreover, replication may be a matter of degree, rather than a binary result of success or failure.1 We explain in Chapter 7 how research synthesis, especially meta-analysis, can be used to evaluate the evidence on a given question. B. Lippincott Company, 1914. Early generation of binary alloys was a simple system that showed high replicability (Quadrant A). This content is currently under construction. adventurous authentic committed compassionate concerned for others consistent courageous dependable enthusiastic fearless friendly good humored honest honorable independent kind loyal HARKing applies to confirmatory research that incorrectly bases the hypothesis on the data collected and then uses that same data as evidence to support the hypothesis. There could be advantages to inverting the question from, Does Result A replicate Result B (given their proximity and uncertainty)?, While a number of different standards for replicability/non-replicability may be justifiable, depending on the attributes of interest, a standard of repeated statistical significance has many limitations because the level of statistical significance is an arbitrary threshold (. With increasing frequency, front page headlines and prime time TV news stories draw public attention to these controversies. This very assertion has been a continuing subject of dispute, both within the scientific community itself, as well as among philosophers, historians and sociologists of science. A recent comprehensive review of an extensive database of 18,000 retracted papers. Recent surveys have shown that despite a renewed interest in mysticism, and growing concern about the contribution of technological development to environmental degradation, public regard for science and technology remains very high. Instead, the papers were retracted because of errors, problems with reproducibility [or replicability], and other issues. Overall, about one-half of all retractions appear to involve fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism. Non-replicability can arise from a number of sources. If restricting certain activities in an area or allocating resources to preserve species is justified, the justification must make appeal to the value of the species or the ecosystem. Minteer, B. Intrinsic value for pragmatists. This characteristic was previously unknown, and, based on this new information, scientists in the field realized they needed to test compounds on a wider variety and a larger number of worms in order to obtain reliable results. In the case of computational errors, transparency in data and computation may make it more likely that the errors can be caught and corrected. Here are four relatable examples to make the nuances of extrinsic motivation of the self-determination continuum easier to understand. A figure from (Amrhein et al., 2019b) also demonstrates this point, as shown in Figure 5-1. Errors may also be made by researchers despite their best intentions (see Box 5-2). Misuse of statistical testing often involves post hoc analyses of data already collected, making it seem as though statistically significant results provide evidence against the null hypothesis, when in fact they may have a high probability of being false positives (John et al., 2012; Munafo et al., 2017). RECOMMENDATION 5-1: Researchers should, as applicable to the specific study, provide an accurate and appropriate characterization of relevant uncertainties when they report or publish their research. Little information is available about the prevalence of such inappropriate statistical practices as p-hacking, cherry picking, and hypothesizing after results are known (HARKing), discussed below. publication. Continuous variables (aka ratio variables) Measurements of continuous or non-finite values. The Monist 75, 138-160 (1992). If something has objective intrinsic value, it has properties or features in virtue of which it is valuable, independent of anyone's attitudes or judgments. 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