Earlier this year, two leaders at the National Institutes of Health said there is growing concern from scientists and laypeople that the system for ensuring the reproducibility of biomedical research “is failing and is in need of restructuring.” On Monday, the NIH addresses this concern with the first of three workshops on data reproducibility.
Dr. Lawrence Tabak, the NIH's principal deputy director, will host the first workshop. He laid out the problem in an essay co-written with NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins that was published in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal Nature. “The checks and balances that once ensured scientific fidelity have been hobbled,” they wrote. “This has compromised the ability of today's researchers to reproduce others' findings.”
The purpose of the Nov. 24 workshop is to educate the research community on what new technology can do, what problems may occur, and to “provide a cautionary note to scientists who hope to use, but are inexperienced with various new modeling techniques,” according to the NIH.
The event will be held on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., and be broadcast live on the Web at videocast.nih.gov.
Speakers will include Dr. Michael Gottesman, NIH deputy director for intramural research, and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
