15 December 2015
Since publication of the series "Increasing value, reducing waste" in the journal The Lancet in January 2014, there has been an intense discussion about the reliability and qualitative base of scientific results in biomedicine. Similar discussions have also occurred in other subject areas that use inferential statistics – such as psychology – after it became apparent that a number of empirical research findings could not be confirmed in repeat trials.
The participants of the DFG roundtable addressed these issues in December 2015; the results are summarised here. The findings mark the beginning of an enhanced scientific discussion process and help raise awareness regarding issues of quality in scientific research, beyond biomedicine and psychology.