Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky on how the biggest fabricator in science got caught: Yoshitaka Fujii falsified 183 papers before statistics exposed him. David Broockman and Joshua Kalla discovered one of social science’s biggest frauds — here’s what they learned. How reliable are psychology studies? A new study shows that the field suffers from a reproducibility problem, but the extent of the issue is still hard to nail down (and more and more). Piercarlo Valdesolo on fixing the problem of liberal bias in social psychology. Philip Ball on how one psychologist is tackling human biases in science. Let’s abolish social science: Michael Lind on a proposal for the new university. No, social science is not doomed: Science is not a synonym for truth; it’s the process by which we search for it.
A scientific look at bad science: Bourree Lam on what recent research says about fraud, errors, and other dismaying academic problems. Science is broken — these academics think they have the answer. If you follow the headlines, your confidence in science may have taken a hit lately, but science isn’t broken: It’s just a hell of a lot harder than we give it credit for. Yes, some studies get retracted, but that’s OK. Julia Belluz and Steven Hoffman on how science is often flawed — it’s time we embraced that. Scientists just published ambitious new guidelines for conducting better research.
John Sides on why Congress should not cut funding to the social sciences: Good science requires good social science. Lance R. Collins on why social sciences are just as important as STEM disciplines. Scientists are trying to figure out the best way to spend money on science. Charles Seife and Paul Tacker on why it’s OK for taxpayers to “snoop” on scientists. Following criticism, PLOS removes blog defending scrutiny of science. Mariam Thalos (Utah): Who Will Advise Us? On Proper Relations between Science and Democratic Institutions.
