Simple errors limit scientific scrutiny »

Researchers have found more than half of the public datasets provided with scientific papers are incomplete, which prevents reproducibility tests and follow-up studies. However, slight improvements to research practices could make a big difference. Lead researcher Dr Dominique Roche from ANU Research School of Biology said many peer-reviewed biological journals now require authors to publicly archive their data when a paper is published. "Unfortunately, our study suggests that many public datasets may be unusable," Dr Roche said. Making research data available improves the transparency and reproducibility of research results and avoids unnecessary duplication of data collection. A survey of 100 papers published in leading journals in ecology and evolution found that more than 50 per cent of the datasets associated with these studies were incomplete due to missing data or essential information needed to interpret the data. Dr Roche said that making the data public is extremely useful, but that the process is often compromised by simple errors made by researchers.