There is currently a vigorous debate about the reproducibility of research findings in cancer biology. Whether scientists can accurately assess which experiments will reproduce original findings is important to determine the pace at which science self-corrects. To address this question, Daniel Benjamin et al. collected forecasts from basic and preclinical cancer researchers on the first 6 replication studies conducted by the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology to assess the accuracy of expert judgments on specific replication outcomes. On average, researchers forecasted a 75% probability of replicating the statistical significance and a 50% probability of replicating the effect size, yet none of these studies successfully replicated on either criterion (for the 5 studies with results reported). Accuracy was related to expertise: Experts with greater publication impact (as measured by h-index) provided more accurate forecasts, but experts did not consistently perform better than trainees, and topic-specific expertise did not improve forecast skill. Thus, the authors concluded that experts tend to overestimate the reproducibility of original studies and/or they underappreciate the difficulty of independently repeating laboratory experiments from original protocols. These findings can have important implications as the authors also state ‘knowing how well biomedical researchers can predict experimental outcomes is crucial for maintaining research systems that set appropriate research priorities, that self-correct, and that incorporate valid evidence into policy making’. LINK
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