Journal article
Methodology over metrics: current scientific standards are a disservice to patients and society
- Abstract:
- Covid-19 research made it painfully clear that the scandal of poor medical research, as denounced by Altman in 1994, persists today. The overall quality of medical research remains poor, despite longstanding criticisms. The problems are well known, but the research community fails to properly address them. We suggest that most problems stem from an underlying paradox: although methodology is undeniably the backbone of high-quality and responsible research, science consistently undervalues methodology. The focus remains more on the destination (research claims and metrics) than on the journey. Notwithstanding, research should serve society more than the reputation of those involved. While we notice that many initiatives are being established to improve components of the research cycle, these initiatives are too disjointed. The overall system is monolithic and slow to adapt. We assert that top-down action is needed from journals, universities, funders and governments to break the cycle and put methodology first. These actions should involve the widespread adoption of registered reports, balanced research funding between innovative, incremental and methodological research projects, full recognition and demystification of peer review, improved methodological review of reports, adherence to reporting guidelines, and investment in methodological education and research. Currently, the scientific enterprise is doing a major disservice to patients and society.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Version of record, 423.3KB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.05.018
Authors
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Journal:
- Journal of Clinical Epidemiology More from this journal
- Volume:
- 138
- Issue:
- 10
- Pages:
- 219-226
- Publication date:
- 2021-05-30
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-05-25
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1878-5921
- ISSN:
-
0895-4356
- Pmid:
-
34077797
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1182768
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1182768
- Deposit date:
-
2021-10-29
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Van Calster et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- ©2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record