Huge reproducibility project fails to validate biomedical studies

A replication drive focused on results that lean on three methods commonly used in biomedical research in Brazil. Credit: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty In an unprecedented effort, a coalition of more than 50 research teams has surveyed a swathe of Brazilian biomedical studies to double-check their findings — with dismaying results. The teams were able to replicate the results of less than half of the tested experiments1. That rate is in keeping with that found by other large-scale attempts to reproduce scientific findings. But the latest work is unique in focusing on papers that use specific methods and in examining the research output of a specific country, according to the research teams. The results provide an impetus to strengthen the country’s science, the study’s authors say. “We now have the material to start making changes from within — whether through public policies or within universities,” says Mariana Boechat de Abreu, a metascience researcher at the Federal University of Rio ... Read full article.