Truth in Science Publishing: A Personal Perspective

Scientists, public servants, and patient advocates alike increasingly question the validity of published scientific results, endangering the public’s acceptance of science. Here, I argue that emerging flaws in the integrity of the peer review system are largely responsible. Distortions in peer review are driven by economic forces and enabled by a lack of accountability of journals, editors, and authors. One approach to restoring trust in the validity of published results may be to establish basic rules that render peer review more transparent, such as publishing the reviews (a practice already embraced by some journals) and monitoring not only the track records of authors but also of editors and journals.

ASM Addresses the Reproducibility Crisis in New Academy Report

"Promoting Responsible Scientific Research" is the title of a new report just released by the American Academy of Microbiology, a component of ASM. It grew out of an Academy colloquium held last October to tackle an issue that is unfortunately becoming well known both inside and outside scientific circles—the lack of rigor in science. I am delighted that the Academy and ASM are taking on this difficult issue and am grateful to all the participants, the Academy steering committee, and especially to Dr. Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University, who chaired the colloquium.

Rethinking Education in Psychology in Light of Reproducibility Crisis

Sanjay Srivastava’s joke syllabus ("A Joke Syllabus With a Serious Point: Cussing Away the Reproducibility Crisis," The Chronicle, August 15) and Lee Jussim's blog post on Psychology Today about educating psychology students in light of the reproducibility crisis led me to reflect on my department’s recent curriculum changes. We have retooled or created from scratch multiple courses that engage something few of my colleagues seem to consider relevant to the problem: intellectual history. They instead hold firmly to the dictates of positivism, insisting that better training in the methods of science will be the source of rescue. Where does this prejudice come from? Might it be time to pave a new way?

Cell Press transforms article methods section to improve transparency and accessibility

Amid discussions around scientific reproducibility, the leading biomedical journal Cell will introduce a redesigned methods section to help authors clearly communicate how experiments are conducted. The first papers using Structured, Transparent, Accessible Reporting (STAR) Methods, which promotes guidelines encouraged by reagent labeling and animal experimentation initiatives, appear in Cell on August 25. The format will then be adopted by other Cell Press journals over the next year, starting with Cell Systems in the fall.