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Faunsdale, AL | WY Dave
You point out retraction watch as a symptom of bad things. You can say it should have nothing to report but I take the opposite position.
The fact that there is critique and further research that causes reputable journals and sometimes the authors or their institutions to retract previously published work is a sign that “science” works.
Would it be better if mistaken or fraudulent articles and publications didn’t ever make it into print or even online? Maybe so, if you take them as evidence that scientific research is flawed.
I think you have to take science as a human project. It’s done by humans who are frequently flawed and certainly subject to biases. The whole peer review process and the design of double blinded study models and statistical anslysis is all a way to eliminate as much of the garbage that creeps in because we’re all human and subject to jealousies, biases, ignorance, pride, ambition, greed ….you name it……humans including scientists are subject to it all.
And yet in spite of all the challenges, the system “totters” along and we learn more and humans and societies benefit more every year. | |
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Please believe in science.
