My newest piece is in The Hill today: Science is littered with zombie studies. Here’s how to stop their spread.
Many people think of science as complete and objective. But the truth is, science continues to evolve and is full of mistakes. Since 1980, more than 40,000 scientific publications have been retracted. They either contained errors, were based on outdated knowledge or were outright frauds.
Identifying these inaccuracies is how science is supposed to work. …Yet these zombie publications continue to be cited and used, unwittingly, to support new arguments.
Why? Almost always it’s because nobody noticed they had been retracted.
Science is littered with zombie studies. Here’s how to stop their spread. Jodi Schneider in The Hill
Thanks to The OpEd Project, the Illinois’ Public Voices Fellowship, and my coach Luis Carrasco. Editorial writing is part of my NSF CAREER: Using Network Analysis to Assess Confidence in Research Synthesis. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funds my retraction research in Reducing the Inadvertent Spread of Retracted Science including the NISO Communication of Retractions, Removals, and Expressions of Concern (CREC) Working Group.