Promoting Responsible Scientific Research

Reproducibility has long been a cornerstone of the scientific enterprise. In recent years, however, there has been growing concern over the lack of reproducibility of many published scientific studies. Systemic problems in the funding and culture of research likely contribute to the reproducibility crisis. Competition for scarce resources may pressure scientists to cut corners, introduce bias and, in extreme cases, falsify or manipulate data, resulting in published studies that cannot be reproduced. The Academy convened a colloquium in October 2015 to discuss the causes, outcomes and possible solutions to this reproducibility problem. The resulting recommendations provide actionable steps that can be taken to improve the reproducibility of published research.