By Chris Chambers, @chrisdc77 In 2015 the UK Academy Medical of Sciences published a landmark report documenting the current state of reproducibility in preclinical and biomedical research. The analysis makes for sobering reading. Preclinical science is littered with small, biased studies, underspecified procedures, and poor statistical methods, driven by perverse career incentives that prioritise quantity […]
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Setting the Agenda: ‘Who are we answering to’?
By Frank Miedema, PhD @MiedemaF The Health Council of the Netherlands recently concluded that the dominant use of academic metrics had, from the perspective of the public, shaped the research agenda of the eight University Medical Centers in an undesirable way. Fields of research that are badly needed because of disease, economic and social burden […]
The QUEST to transform translational biomedical research has begun
The QUEST center at the Berlin Institute of Health celebrated its opening with an international symposium. A diverse cast of speakers outlined current challenges in the scientific process and a possible roadmap to transform biomedical research. Trish Groves (Director of academic outreach at BMJ and Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Open) spoke about the meaning of […]
Lessons learned from the MVA85A vaccine: our approach to addressing these issues
By Emily Sena @drEmilySena This week’s The BMJ includes a collection of articles on preclinical animal studies! As editor-in-chief of BMJ’s first ‘science’ journal it’s exciting to see the conversation about the validity of preclinical animal studies and the manner with which they inform the development of new treatments for patients feature in our big […]
BMJ Open Science: bringing the science back into medicine
By Trish Groves, @trished BMJ Open Science is keen to see your research and to help the world to see it at its best and without restrictions. If you want to publish your work in a place that will reach both scientific and medical audiences, and will meet your funders’ open access mandates, do submit your work. […]