Re:1 in 4 Statisticians Say They Were Asked to Commit Scient...
by BeetleB on Friday November 02, 2018 @11:12PM
(#18368468)
>I don't see how a research scientist could say this; something seems culturally wrong there.
I can tell you haven't spent time as a grad student in a top university in the US. There is almost no incentive for a research scientist to pursue this. They're very busy and stressed out, and this will not help them in any way. Your argument that one person wasted a lot of time, and so others will be spared that pointless effort is a sound one, but you have to realize that in some (sub)disciplines, scientists view a good bulk of the research as problematic and a waste of time. Why go through the trouble for this particular case?
Also, I doubt a simple email to Nature will change much. There would likely be a somewhat lengthy process, which will suck more of your time. And to be brutally honest, the chances are higher that the code did produce those results, but the grad students/post docs have been modifying the code for their next batch of research. Even something as basic as version control is unheard of in much of scientific research.
Definitely a cultural problem, as you describe it.
I can tell you haven't spent time as a grad student in a top university in the US. There is almost no incentive for a research scientist to pursue this. They're very busy and stressed out, and this will not help them in any way. Your argument that one person wasted a lot of time, and so others will be spared that pointless effort is a sound one, but you have to realize that in some (sub)disciplines, scientists view a good bulk of the research as problematic and a waste of time. Why go through the trouble for this particular case?
Also, I doubt a simple email to Nature will change much. There would likely be a somewhat lengthy process, which will suck more of your time. And to be brutally honest, the chances are higher that the code did produce those results, but the grad students/post docs have been modifying the code for their next batch of research. Even something as basic as version control is unheard of in much of scientific research.
Definitely a cultural problem, as you describe it.