Reproducibility and cell biology

Growing concerns about the reproducibility of published research threaten to undermine the scientific enterprise and erode public trust. Conscientious application of “best practices” for the generation and reporting of research, along with post-publication access to raw data and other research materials, will protect the integrity of the research literature. Research reproducibility is an increasingly major concern in biomedical research. It is crucial to the scientific enterprise, not only because it underpins the accuracy and integrity of our published literature, but also because basic research increasingly contributes to the development of innovative clinical therapies. Recent accounts describe frustrating experiences of pharmaceutical companies attempting to build upon basic and translational research studies, notably in cancer biology. These companies encountered surprisingly low reproducibility (<25%) of published work (Prinz et al., 2011; Begley and Ellis, 2012). Ironically, the validity of these commentaries cannot be assessed because they do not provide primary research data. However, others have raised similar concerns about reproducibility in a significant proportion of published papers, and this has in turn raised concerns at funding agencies (Ioannidis, 2005; Landis et al., 2012; Collins and Tabak, 2014). Recent dialogue about the potential causes of low reproducibility has focused on training, journal practices, pressure to publish quickly, lack of appropriate controls, and inefficient self-correction. Are these perceived problems real, and if so how should the scientific community respond in order to enhance reproducibility? Drawing on our many decades of service as editorial board members of JCB, we would like to offer a few impressions. First and foremost, our experience is that reproducibility problems most likely arise from mistakes in performing and reporting original research, or from the inability to reproduce specialized methods, rather than from scientific misconduct. One approach that provides a semiquantitative window into the issue of data integrity in individual papers was pioneered by JCB in 2002 (Rossner, 2002). Since then, our production team Reproducibility and cell biology