Most science papers turn out to be wrong. It’s time to fix that

A man in a lab coat at a desk

Crisis? What crisis?

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In these times of fake news, it’s good to know that there’s still one source we can rely on: the scientific community. Wielding rigorous standards of evidence, researchers can be counted on to give us trustworthy insights amid a sea of nonsense.

Yet this, too, is fake news. For decades, scientists have been using flawed methods for turning raw data into insight about, say, the effectiveness of a new medical therapy or method of teaching. As a result, the research literature is awash with findings that are nothing more than meaningless flukes. No less shocking

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