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Scientist Says Most Scientific Papers Are Wrong

An anonymous reader writes "According to epidemiologist John Ioannidis, the majority of published scientific papers are wrong. If Ioannidis's own paper is right, a randomly chosen scientific paper has less than a 50% chance of being true. He also says that many papers may only be accurate measures of the prevailing bias among scientists. However, a senior editor of a scientific journal says that scientists are already aware of this: 'When I read the literature, I'm not reading it to find proof like a textbook. I'm reading to get ideas. So even if something is wrong with the paper, if they have the kernel of a novel idea, that's something to think about.'"

3 of 656 comments (clear)

  1. Cool! by jav1231 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Damn good thing truth is constantly changing. Now we can bask in the comfort that those who we've setup as gods are wrong about half the time. So there's a 50% chance Creationism is right? And since they reach each others writings to get ideas instead of facts, perhaps all those people suffering in the wake of Katrina simply had differing ideas about where it was landing. Hey, they had a 50% chance of being right.

  2. Re:groan by wildsurf · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Personally, I believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

    Their scientific evidence linking global warming to the dwindling pirate population is rock-solid. (Unlike, evidently, the majority of other scientific papers.)

    As if that weren't enough, they also have their own car emblem.

    May you Twirl on His Noodly Fork Forever.

    --
    Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
  3. Re:Science = Modeling by Listen+Up · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    False. Science is a process of understanding and defining the finite rules which govern our universe. You cannot make a true statement stating that all models will always be incomplete forever as there is no evidence that there is such a limitation.