Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth

by Stuart Ritchie

In cognitive psychology experiments where participants must press a button as quickly as possible when, and only when, a light flashes, researchers talk about the ‘speed-accuracy trade-off’. When the subjects focus on haste, their accuracy suffers; when they focus on getting it right, they have to slow down. (And by the way, this is a nice straightforward psychological effect that really does replicate, in almost every relevant experiment.)19 It’s no different in scientific publishing.20 Time is finite. Pushing scientists to publish more and more papers and bring in more and more money – alongside all their other responsibilities, like teaching, mentoring, and administrative tasks – almost necessarily implies that they’ll spend less time on each study. Pushing peer reviewers (who are, of course, busy scientists themselves) to review more and more submissions means that more research that’s mistaken, overhyped or even fraudulent will get past the filter. It can’t be surprising, in both cases, if standards slip.21