Giuseppe
Emeritus
[Source: Nature, full text: (LINK). Extract, edited.]
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Must try harder
<DL><DT>Journal name: Nature - Volume: 483, Page: 509 - Date published: (29 March 2012) - DOI: doi:10.1038/483509a - Published online 28 March 2012 </DT></DL>
<DL><DT><DT>Too many sloppy mistakes are creeping into scientific papers. Lab heads must look more rigorously at the data ? and at themselves.</DT><DT> </DT></DL>Science: Branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged. So says the dictionary. But, as most scientists appreciate, the fruits of what is called science are occasionally anything but. Most of the time, when attention focuses on divergence from this gold (and linguistic) standard of science, it is fraud and fabrication ? the facts and truth ? that are in the spotlight. These remain important problems, but this week Nature highlights another, more endemic, failure ? the increasing number of cases in which, although the facts and truth have been established, scientists fail to make sure that they are systematically arranged. Put simply, there are too many careless mistakes creeping into scientific papers ? in our pages and elsewhere.
(?)
-<DL><DT>Journal name: Nature - Volume: 483, Page: 509 - Date published: (29 March 2012) - DOI: doi:10.1038/483509a - Published online 28 March 2012 </DT></DL>
<DL><DT><DT>Too many sloppy mistakes are creeping into scientific papers. Lab heads must look more rigorously at the data ? and at themselves.</DT><DT> </DT></DL>Science: Branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged. So says the dictionary. But, as most scientists appreciate, the fruits of what is called science are occasionally anything but. Most of the time, when attention focuses on divergence from this gold (and linguistic) standard of science, it is fraud and fabrication ? the facts and truth ? that are in the spotlight. These remain important problems, but this week Nature highlights another, more endemic, failure ? the increasing number of cases in which, although the facts and truth have been established, scientists fail to make sure that they are systematically arranged. Put simply, there are too many careless mistakes creeping into scientific papers ? in our pages and elsewhere.
(?)
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