How the GOP Could Use Science’s Reform Movement Against It

Over the past decade, scientists have been wrestling with the possibility that many published findings may not actually be true. The worry is that poorly designed studies, intense pressures to publish eye-catching results, and—more rarely—misconduct, have led to a “reproducibility crisis.” In a survey of 1,500 researchers, conducted last year by the leading journal Nature, 90 percent agreed that such a crisis exists, with 38 percent billing it “slight” and 52 percent calling it “significant.”

These introspective concerns have fueled a burgeoning “reproducibility movement,” where researchers in psychology, cancer research, neuroscience, genetics, and other disciplines are developing ways of making science more reliable. One solution is to encourage “open science,” where researchers share their data so that others can more easily verify their work, and where they publish in freely accessible journals so their results aren’t locked behind expensive paywalls.

Both the reproducibility and open-science movements have built up a lot of steam. But