

The Best Way to Reduce Research Bias Is Hiding in Plain View - rl3
http://nautil.us/blog/the-best-way-to-reduce-research-bias-is-hiding-in-plain-view

======
jrapdx3
For sure, blinding is an important tool for reducing bias and essential for
optimum experimental validity.

I'm more familiar with the medical field but the fundamental issues are the
same. In recent years there's been growing concern about the limitations of
blinding.

In pharmaceutical research, the random controlled trial (RCT) remains the
"gold standard", but over time, increasing strength of placebo response has
become a big problem. IOW as separation of conditions is less affected by
blinding, it ceases to be a useful experimental tool.

Of course, this may not apply so directly to observations of insect behavior
but it does illustrate that "blindness" to experimental conditions is
relative, not absolute.

The publication process could itself inject biases into experimental design
and conduct. Having to pass through peer review potentially distorts things.
If the experimenter believes reviewers favor particular methods or outcomes,
it could influence the experimental set up or even whether the experiment is
carried out.

I've long thought one way to improve publication quality would be for editors
to forbid authors drawing broad conclusions vs. just putting results into
context. After all, "first findings" are prized, but such results are
preliminary or unconfirmed. It will take many studies for genuine patterns to
emerge. The conclusions have to come later as the community of science
determines what findings mean.

Avoiding premature speculation about conclusions will reduce bias because
"negative" studies would then just be more data, part of the pattern to be
puzzled out, and more likely to be published vs. relegated to the "file
drawer". The quality of the study becomes more important than having to ascend
to the top of the heap, to show my conclusions grander than the others.
Eliminating that contest will improve the discourse immeasurably.

