Unreliable

Bias, Fraud, and the Reproducibility Crisis in Biomedical Research

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Pub Date Mar 11 2025 | Archive Date Jun 11 2025

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Description

Reproducibility is fundamental to the scientific method. After reading a paper describing research findings, a scientist should be able to repeat the experiment and obtain the same results. Yet an alarming number—perhaps as high as 90 percent—of published biomedical research papers face challenges in independent replication. Such issues range from honest mistakes to outright fraud. The scope of this crisis, however, underscores deeper systemic issues within the scientific community: its culture, incentives, and institutions.

In Unreliable, the distinguished scientist Csaba Szabo examines the causes and consequences of the reproducibility crisis in biomedical research, showing why the factors that encourage misconduct stem from flaws in real-world science. There are many culprits, including commonplace research methods and dubious statistical techniques. Academic career incentives, hypercompetition for grant funding, and a bias toward publishing positive results have exacerbated the problem. Deliberate data manipulation and fabricated findings churned out by “paper mills” are disturbingly common. Academic institutions and publishers, for their part, have perpetuated a culture of impunity.

Szabo explores how these failures have hindered scientific progress and impeded the development of new treatments, and he introduces readers to the “science sleuths” who tirelessly uncover misconduct. He proposes comprehensive reforms, from scientific training to the grant system through the publication process, to address the root causes of the crisis. Written in clear language and leavened with a keen sense of irony, Unreliable is an essential account of the reproducibility crisis that gives readers an inside look at how science is actually done.

Reproducibility is fundamental to the scientific method. After reading a paper describing research findings, a scientist should be able to repeat the experiment and obtain the same results. Yet an...


Advance Praise

"In the name of honest and dedicated scientists, Unreliable is an outcry against the broken system of biomedical research. Csaba Szabo gives a comprehensive analysis of inept grant award schemes and corrupt publication practices and calls for an urgent overhaul."

--Katalin Karikó, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

"In the name of honest and dedicated scientists, Unreliable is an outcry against the broken system of biomedical research. Csaba Szabo gives a comprehensive analysis of inept grant award schemes and...


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EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780231216241
PRICE $30.00 (USD)
PAGES 336

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