A failure to reproduce : How bad biomedical science is holding

Irreproducibility is a common problem in the biomedical sciences. Numerous studies have revealed the systemic and chronic nature of the problem, yet not enough is being down to combat it. The financial cost is estimated to be 28 billion dollars in the United States alone. Combine this financial cost with the time spent on irreproducible studies and the net effect is staggering. The factors for this lack of reproducibility are however identifiable and concrete steps can be taken to improve the situation. This article describes some of the factors leading to irreproducibility in the biomedical sciences and how stakeholders at every level of the field can act to reverse them. Hussein Jaafar ( ) Corresponding author: [email protected] Jaafar H and Maweni RM. How to cite this article: A failure to reproduce: How bad biomedical science is holding us back [version 1; 2016, :415 (doi: ) referees: 1 approved with reservations, 2 not approved] F1000Research 5 10.12688/f1000research.8370.1 © 2016 Jaafar H and Maweni RM. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Licence The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work. Grant information: Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed. 30 Mar 2016, :415 (doi: ) First published: 5 10.12688/f1000research.8370.1 1