Citation

Hillary FG, Medaglia JD. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Drexel University, United States of America; Department of Neurology, Drexel University, United States of America; Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.05.006

PMID

31082406

Abstract

The provocative paper by Ioannidis (2005) claiming that "most research findings are false" re-ignited longstanding concerns (see Meehl, 1967) that findings in the behavioral sciences are unlikely to be replicated. Then, a landmark paper by Nosek et al. (2015a) substantiated this conjecture, showing that, study reproducibility hovers at 40%. With the unfortunate failure of clinical trials in brain injury and other neurological disorders, it may be time to reconsider approaches not only in clinical interventions, but also how we establish their efficacy. We offer that a scientific community galvanized by a history of failed clinical trials and motivated by this "crisis" may be at critical cross-roads for change engendering a culture of transparent, open science where the primary goal is to test and not support hypotheses about specific interventions. The outcome of this scientific introspection could be a paradigm shift that accelerates our science bringing investigators closer to important advancements in rehabilitation medicine. In this commentary we offer a brief summary of how open science, study pre-registration and reorganization of scientific incentive structure could advance the clinical sciences.

Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Language: en