While reading our copy of Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hopes, and Wastes Billions, we were reminded of some earlier discussions about whether published research findings hold up under scrutiny. The 2005 paper titled Why Most Published Research Findings are False by John P.A. Ioannidis is probably one of the most-discussed publications in this area. A response to that paper can be found here; and Ioannidis’ response to that response is available here. These papers are all readily accessible through PLOS.
Hot off the presses (April 2018) comes a John C. Ashton paper titled It Has Not Been Proven Why or That Most Research Findings are False, which takes issue with Ioannidis’ findings, in the “…his analysis and conclusions are incoherent. Furthermore, they are falsified by data and are scientifically pernicious” sense of the term “takes issue.” If you have access to the UAMS Library website, you should be able to access this paper link through PubMed. If you don’t have UAMS library access and would like to see a copy, please contact IRB Blog Central’s Original Sources department at paalediths@uams.edu for a copy.