If you watch the news occasionally then you have heard about all the studies that these medical journals report on….eggs are bad ……..coffee is bad for the kidneys…….Viagra will give you a boner…..on and on……but how accurate are all these studies in reality?
AS reported on naturalnews.com…..
(NaturalNews) If you read research in a scientific or medical journal, especially one that is peer-reviewed, you know it is presented as accurately as possible, right? Researcher Daniele Fanelli of the University of Edinburgh decided to study the scientists doing the studies to see if she could find the answer.
After conducting the first meta-analysis of surveys questioning scientists about their misbehavior behind the scenes — notably, falsifying their research — she came up with results that are nothing less than shocking. It turns out that researchers apparently alter or just plain make up data far more frequently than previously estimated. And the practice seems to be particularly high in medical and drug research.
The results from all the surveys showed that only about two percent of scientists admitted to either making up or altering data to improve the outcome of a study at least once. Because the surveys asked very sensitive questions, Fanelli pointed out that it likely that some respondents did not reply honestly, especially when asked about their own activities. So the two percent figure is probably a very conservative estimate.
A much larger number, around 34 percent, admitted to other questionable research practices that can totally skew the results of a study — including “failing to present data that contradict one’s own previous research” and “dropping observations or data points from analyses based on a gut feeling that they were inaccurate.” What’s more, 14 percent of the scientists said they knew someone who had fabricated, falsified or altered data, and the vast majority, around 72 percent, said they knew someone who had taken part in other questionable research practices.