2016/08/02 by Gopal P. Sarma, Sarma, Gopal P.
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #cs.CY #physics.soc-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1608.00689
4 pages
arxiv created 2018/04/23 · arxiv updated 2018/04/24
The "crisis of reproducibility" has been a significant source of controversy, heated debate, and calls for reform to institutional science in recent years. As a long-term solution to address both the present crisis and future obstacles, I propose the creation of a new form of research organization whose purpose would be to conduct random audits of the scientific literature. I suggest that data analytics of a digitized scientific corpus may play a critical role in allowing broadly educated scientists to identify linchpin results to investigate in further detail across all disciplines. I argue that a simple "mock" trial run of a simplified auditing firm consisting of several researchers over a short time period would provide valuable insight into the feasibility of this proposal.