"The Infancy Of Meta-Science"

A defining feature of science is its capacity to evolve in response to new developments. Historically—changes in technological capacities, quantitative procedures, and scientific understanding have all contributed to large-scale revisions in the conduct of scientific investigations. Pressure is mounting for further improvements. In disciplines such as medicine, psychology, genetics, and biology researchers have been confronting findings that are not as robust as they initially appeared. Such shrinking effects raise questions not only about the specific findings they challenge, but more generally about the confidence that we can have in published results that have yet to be re-evaluated.