Physical Society Colloquium

Reproducibility Crisis in the Life Sciences

Robert Nadon

Department of Human Genetics
McGill University

The growing reproducibility crisis in the life sciences came to mainstream attention with a severely critical editorial that appeared in the influential journal The Economist in 2013. Earlier concerns about outright fraud had given way to criticisms concerning violations of fundamental scientific principles in ostensibly cutting-edge research. Reactions within the life sciences community to the piece, entitled “How science goes wrong�”, have ranged from disdain to indifference to approval.

As an experimental psychologist who has focused on study design and data analysis in the life sciences for over 15 years, I bring an insider/outsider perspective to the controversy. I will try to shed light on the issues through discussion of recent publications and personal anecdotes