REPRODUCIBILITY CRISIS: CAN SCIENCE IN PAKISTAN AFFORD INACCURACY?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69723/njms.04.02.0598Abstract
The pace of global scientific advancement is particularly pronounced in the field of biomedical research. With the proliferation of sophisticated computational tools and widespread access to high-speed internet, researchers now operate in an ecosystem primed for rapid idea development and dissemination.Understanding Reproducibility Reproducibility, a fundamental principle of the scientific method, refers to the ability to obtain consistent results by independent researchers using the same experimental methodologyPakistan, too, is not immune to this crisis. A 2024 study published in BMC Medical Ethics surveyed 654 medical and dental faculty across the country. Alarmingly, every respondent admitted to engaging in at least one questionable research practice, including data fabrication, selective reporting, and honorary authorship. These behaviors were strongly linked to institutional pressures and insufficient training in research ethics.
References
deKemp R, Juneau D, Wu KY, Wells G, Ruddy T, Beanlands R. On the roles of reproducibility, ethics, and statistical modeling in medical research. J Nucl Cardiol. 2021 Jun;28(3):855-858. doi: 10.1007/s12350-021-02592-z.
Goodman SN, Fanelli D, Ioannidis JP. What does research reproducibility mean? Sci Transl Med. 2016 Jun 1;8(341):341ps12. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf5027.
Munafò, M., Nosek, B., Bishop, D. et al. A manifesto for reproducible science. Nat Hum Behav 1, 0021 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0021
Baker, M. 1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility. Nature 533, 452–454 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/533452a
Begley, C., Buchan, A. & Dirnagl, U. Robust research: Institutions must do their part for reproducibility. Nature 525, 25–27 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/525025a
Collins, F., Tabak, L. Policy: NIH plans to enhance reproducibility. Nature 505, 612–613 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/505612a
Fahim, A., Sadaf, A., Jafari, F.H. et al. Questionable research practices of medical and dental faculty in Pakistan – a confession. BMC Med Ethics 25, 11 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-024-01004-4
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Adeela Mustafa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Readers may “Share-copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format” and “Adapt-remix, transform, and build upon the material”. The readers must give appropriate credit to the source of the material and indicate if changes were made to the material. Readers may not use the material for commercial purposes. The readers may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
.png)
