Valid as in meaningfully peer reviewed to avoid flawed/badly designed studies as well as total garbage (for example https://nerdist.com/article/fake-star-wars-midi-chlorian-pap...) but the gold standard should be replication.

We should reward quality work, not simply the number of research papers (since it's easy to churn out trash) or what the results are (because until they are verified they could be faked).