Contents
HomeMain pages
- Why does the question matter?
- Fundamental principles of science
- Methods used in science
- Justification for this description of science
- What is not science?
- Good science and bad science
- How reliable is science?
- Where can scientific methods be used?
- Evidence-based policy making
Appendices
Downloadable .pdf
About the author
Good science and bad science
What are the differences between good and bad science?It comes down to adhering to the rules or breaking the rules - rules that have been found to give consistent answers and good predictions.
Errors have been cataloged by Andersen (1990) [1], and Ben Goldacre has also given many examples [2].
Some errors keep recurring e.g.
- not being clear about the difference between an association, on the one hand, and cause and effect, on the other
- not being clear about the difference between not finding a difference, on the one hand, and demonstrating no difference, on the other.
References
[1] Andersen B (1990) Methodological errors in medical research, Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford[2] Ben Goldacre (2008) Bad Science ISBN 978-0-00728487-0 www.badscience.net
Last updated: 15 Apr 2018
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