Research Credibility Quotes

It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Science is objective. And in my view we cannot take any experimental results seriously except in the light of good explanations of them.

I argue that experiments have no special ability to produce more credible knowledge than other methods, and that actual experiments are frequently subject to practical problems that undermine any claims to statistical or epistemic superiority.

A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it.

When people don’t like the results that they are getting from honest scientific research, they try and discredit the researchers and the methods..

They [Japanese whalers] haven't produced a single peer-reviewed international scientific paper in 23 years.

He [said of one or other eminent colleagues] is a very busy man, and half of what he publishes is true, but I don't know which half.

However, I believe that it would be difficult to have legitimate scientists agree to participate.

Studies are studies. You get all kinds of studies.

Unfortunately, a lot of economists wanted to make their subject a science. So the more what you do resembles physics or chemistry, the more credible you become.

When you write a business fable, people get caught up in the story and don't get judgmental about what you're teaching them. If you're teaching a bunch of concepts, people get skeptical and say, 'Where'd you get that research?' But if you tell them a story, they get caught up in it while they learn.

Poll results published with a clear byline for the research reflect a higher degree of confidence in the survey.

One of the advantages of science is that one's work, ultimately, is either replicated or it is not.

I believe that research, that you can claim that you're doing research only if half of the people, and I'm talking about half of the experts, believe that the goal is impossible.

A theorist today is hardly considered respectable if he or she has not introduced at least one new particle for which there is no experimental evidence.

There were only 170 neurologists in Britain then and, whether spoken or unspoken, there was this insidious feeling. How can Bannister, a mere athlete, probably spoilt by all the publicity and fame, dare aspire to neurology? But I'd done a lot of research, and my academic record was very good.

[Discussing economic trends:] You can find a study that says anything.

If you are a natural scientist, a publication the journal Science carries enormous prestige.