news
One in four studies in
top journal unreplicable
Research findings may be symptomatic of the
‘publish or perish’ culture in academia.
F
ront-line victims of the replication crisis have been identified
by New Zealand and American scientists: studies themselves.
Colin Camerer, Brian Nosek and their colleagues from
Massey University, America’s Center for Open Science, and
Caltech, attempted to reproduce the findings of 21 social science
My name is Dan
Who is Simon Birmingham’s successor?
T
he son of a former state Liberal MP (his mother) and a past
party vice-president (his father), Dan Tehan has politics in
his veins.
His rapid ascent – from local federal MP in 2010 to government
frontbencher in 2016 – is also attributable to his vast professional
experience. He has been a farmhand, a diplomat in Mexico, and
the chief adviser to the minister for tourism.
Now, following his short ministerships, notably in veterans’ affairs
and social services, he is the minster for education and training
under Scott Morrison’s new leadership.
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campusreview.com.au
studies, published in the journals Nature and Science between
2010 and 2015. On average, only a quarter from Nature were
replicable, while just two in five from Science could be reaffirmed.
Ironically, they used very small sample sizes (only reproducing
four studies in Nature and 17 in Science) – a frequent reason for
studies being unreplicable. Yet they attempted to counter this by,
in their replication studies, using sample sizes that were five times
larger than the ones used in the original studies.
So why were so many of the original studies flawed? Camerer
and his colleagues said false positives and inflated effect sizes
could be culprits. Yet they also implicitly blamed the original
researchers for this. After surveying 400 researchers, they found a
strong correlation between replicability and beliefs about it. This
led them to conclude that the researchers were likely aware that
their studies were not reproducible.
That they published anyway could be symptomatic of the
‘publish or perish’ culture that has infected academia.
Nevertheless, the replication study authors appeared
disappointed with their results, given they pertained to premium
journals “where one might expect greater editorial scrutiny”.
Nature Human Behaviour published their findings.
In an accompanying editorial, Scottish neurology professor
Malcolm MacLeod took a more sanguine approach, where he
extolled the virtues of ‘failed’ reproducibility. He said it fosters
“great research opportunities, and pursuit of these opportunities is
likely to lead to improved and better considered research designs”.
“For these reasons, current issues of the reproducibility of
research should not be seen as a crisis, but as an opportunity.” ■
This portfolio – the third-largest in 2018–19 by government
expenditure – is a lively one. Although Tehan’s predecessor Simon
Birmingham secured a school funding package earlier this year,
it remains marred by complaints of unfairness from the Catholic
schools sector.
Another of Birmingham’s major reforms – a freeze on demand-
driven student funding for universities – is similarly controversial.
Then, there’s the continued agitation from the VET sector, where
enrolments and funding remain relatively low.
Tehan, who represents the division of Wannon in rural southwest
Victoria, is from a farming family and still lives near the land – in
Hamilton. In between, however, he attended a Catholic boarding
school in Melbourne, and undertook degrees at Melbourne and
Monash Universities.
So, what does this mean by references to his stances on the big
issues? Previously describing himself as “an imperfect Catholic”, he
could be a friend to Catholic schools on funding issues.
On the higher education front, given his rural roots and base,
the Regional Universities Network hopes he will continue to take
up their cause of greater funding for regional campuses. This is
likely, considering his comments when the Coalition accepted the
recommendations of the Halsey Review into Regional, Rural and
Remote Education.
On most of these points, Campus Review has requested Tehan’s
direct views. For VET, which now falls under a separate ministry, its new
leader Senator Michaelia Cash has been consulted.
Meanwhile, Simon Birmingham has been relieved from
commenting on NAPLAN and student debt. He is now the minister
for trade. ■