Lancet Editor Proclaims Half of All Scientific Studies are False

Collective Evolution discusses a recent commentary by Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, in which Horton states that “much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.”

“Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness,” writes Horton.

“This is quite disturbing, given the fact that all of these studies (which are industry sponsored) are used to develop drugs/vaccines to supposedly help people, train medical staff, educate medical students and more,” comments Arjun Walia on Collective Evolution. “It’s common for many to dismiss a lot of great work by experts and researchers at various institutions around the globe which isn’t ‘peer-reviewed’ and doesn’t appear in a ‘credible’ medical journal, but as we can see, ‘peer-reviewed’ doesn’t really mean much anymore.”

Horton, Richard. “Offline: What Is Medicine’s 5 Sigma?” The Lancet 385, no. 9976 (April 2015): 1380. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60696-1. (Full text)

Editor In Chief Of World’s Best Known Medical Journal: Half Of All The Literature Is False (Collective Evolution, May 16, 2015)