tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/research-methods-31408/articlesResearch methods – The Conversation2023-07-05T12:23:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2060452023-07-05T12:23:01Z2023-07-05T12:23:01Z‘E. coli’ is one of the most widely studied organisms – and that may be a problem for both science and medicine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534368/original/file-20230627-19-w2lrsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2133%2C1404&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">_E. coli_ as a model organism helped researchers better understand how DNA works.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/researcher-with-e-coli-bacteria-royalty-free-image/521677434">Ed Horowitz Photography/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1857, a young pediatrician named <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1810">Theodor Escherich</a> discovered what may very well be the most well-studied organism today. The rod-shaped bacterium named <em>Escherichia coli</em>, better known as <em>E. coli</em>, is a very common microbe residing in your gut. It’s also the workhorse of early molecular biology.</p>
<p>Luck likely played a role in its rise in popularity among scientists. Even under 19th-century lab conditions, where sterilization techniques were not perfect and little was known about what food bacteria need to survive, this microbe was easy to cultivate and grow quickly. It can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0789">replicate in under 20 minutes</a> and can use a variety of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12918-014-0133-z">carbon sources for energy</a>. </p>
<p>As the first species to have its <a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.29.2.205-213.1935">physiology thoroughly explored</a>, <em>E. coli</em> has contributed fundamental knowledge to the fields of microbiology, molecular genetics and biochemistry, including how DNA replicates, how genes create proteins and how bacteria share genetic material among themselves – a huge <a href="https://theconversation.com/antibiotic-resistance-is-at-a-crisis-point-government-support-for-academia-and-big-pharma-to-find-new-drugs-could-help-defeat-superbugs-169443">cause of antibiotic resistance</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534417/original/file-20230627-17-qy37yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of E. coli structure" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534417/original/file-20230627-17-qy37yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534417/original/file-20230627-17-qy37yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534417/original/file-20230627-17-qy37yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534417/original/file-20230627-17-qy37yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534417/original/file-20230627-17-qy37yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534417/original/file-20230627-17-qy37yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534417/original/file-20230627-17-qy37yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"><em>E. coli</em> is a rod-shaped bacterium with flagella that help it move.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/coli-bacteria-micro-biological-vector-royalty-free-illustration/957344970">VectorMine/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>However, the favored use of <em>E. coli</em> in the lab has also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1529/biophysj.107.104398">led to oversimplifications</a> in the world of microbiology, distracting researchers from the thousands of other bacterial species that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1707009114">remain understudied</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://doerr.wicmb.cornell.edu/current-lab-members/">microbiologists</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yYroRg8AAAAJ&hl=en">studying the</a> inner mechanisms of <a href="https://theconversation.com/looming-behind-antibiotic-resistance-is-another-bacterial-threat-antibiotic-tolerance-200226">antibiotic tolerance</a>, we and colleagues in <a href="https://doerr.wicmb.cornell.edu/">our lab</a> examine bacterial species that physiologically differ from <em>E. coli</em> in hopes of expanding the existing pool of knowledge within microbiology. For instance, drugs like penicillin fall into a class of antibiotics that target the outer defenses of the bacteria. We found that while <em>E. coli</em> succumbs to this attack, species like <em>Vibrio</em> or <em>Klebsiella</em> can <a href="https://theconversation.com/looming-behind-antibiotic-resistance-is-another-bacterial-threat-antibiotic-tolerance-200226">tolerate it and survive</a>. </p>
<p>A one-size-fits-all approach may have worked in the past, but embracing the true diversity of microbes could help scientists better fight the rise of antibiotic resistance.</p>
<h2>Scientific good of <em>E. coli</em></h2>
<p>Researchers worked out the very foundations of life using <em>E. coli</em>. The significance of this bacterium for the field of biology is probably best captured by the biochemist <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1965/monod/facts/">Jacques Monod</a>, who famously said, “What is true for <em>E. coli</em> is true for the elephant.” </p>
<p>Because researchers were able to watch regions of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/158558a0"><em>E. coli</em>‘s DNA become mobile</a>, allowing bacteria to transfer DNA among one another in a process called conjugation, scientists learned to manipulate this process to genetically alter organisms and study the effects of different genes. </p>
<p><em>E. coli</em> helped reveal that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/SQB.1963.028.01.011">bacterial chromosomes are circular</a> and that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-2836(59)80045-0">manipulating a specific enzyme</a> can allow scientists to easily clone parts of the bacterial genome. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534393/original/file-20230627-27-wdxgtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy image of E. coli, colored orange" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534393/original/file-20230627-27-wdxgtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534393/original/file-20230627-27-wdxgtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534393/original/file-20230627-27-wdxgtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534393/original/file-20230627-27-wdxgtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534393/original/file-20230627-27-wdxgtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534393/original/file-20230627-27-wdxgtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534393/original/file-20230627-27-wdxgtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">While <em>E. coli</em> are common residents in your gut, certain strains can cause serious infections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/coli-sem-royalty-free-image/1414386430">Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><em>E. coli</em> also opened doors to using a type of <a href="https://theconversation.com/viruses-are-both-the-villains-and-heroes-of-life-as-we-know-it-169131">bacterial viruses called phages</a> as an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.22.3.365">alternative to antibiotics</a>. </p>
<p>Widely available knowledge about and methods to study <em>E. coli</em> led to its prominence in academic and commercial research and drug production. In 2015, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4014/jmb.1412.12079">nearly 30% of proteins used as treatments</a> for a wide range of diseases like hepatitis C and multiple sclerosis were derived from <em>E. coli</em>.</p>
<h2>Model organism drawbacks</h2>
<p><em>E. coli</em>’s track record has solidified its place in the lab as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9863-7_76">model organism</a>. Model organisms are nonhuman species researchers use to study biology, with the expectation that the findings can be applied to other species like humans. Species are often chosen for their ease of maintenance, quick life cycles and overall cost-effectiveness. </p>
<p>However, model organisms have their drawbacks. Some researchers have argued that drawing parallels across species can <a href="https://theconversation.com/expanding-alzheimers-research-with-primates-could-overcome-the-problem-with-treatments-that-show-promise-in-mice-but-dont-help-humans-188207">sometimes fall short</a>, leading to assumptions about more complex species that may not be true.</p>
<p>Additionally, study findings using nonmodel organisms are often less visible in the broader scientific community, since many researchers focus on organisms with known and defined traits. This bias results in a shadow space where progress is not immediately incorporated into broader scientific knowledge, which can slow down research that actually covers a range from bacteria to elephants.</p>
<h2>ESKAPE pathogens don’t include <em>E. coli</em></h2>
<p>Model organisms are not perfect, and <em>E. coli</em> may not be an effective species to use to study many human bacterial infections. Focusing research on this microbe limits the exploration of how other bacteria infiltrate and infect human hosts. While some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro818">strains of <em>E. coli</em> can be deadly</a>, they are not the only worrisome pathogens today. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/cmr.00181-19">ESKAPE pathogens</a>, a group of bacteria that are highly resistant to antibiotics, pose a massive global health threat because they can quickly evolve traits that allow them to evade immune systems and available treatments. Species within ESKAPE, such as <em>Klebsiella pneumoniae</em> and <em>E. cloacae</em>, are able to resist multiple drugs and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.00756-19">exhibit physical characteristics</a> that <em>E. coli</em> does not, such as the ability to remove their cell wall and evade certain drugs.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a major global health threat.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Our lab is studying the unique traits that allow ESKAPE pathogens to survive antibiotics – traits we would not have known about if we used only <em>E. coli</em> as a model organism in our research.</p>
<p>With the many basics of fundamental bacterial cell and molecular biology covered thanks to <em>E. coli</em>, it may be time for researchers to turn toward the new pathogens wreaking havoc on society. Model organisms are wondrous tools, but they have limited power to allow findings to be extrapolated to other organisms. Better understanding the underpinnings of bacterial infections and antibiotics for a given disease requires studying the specific organism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Keller receives funding from National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tobias Dörr receives funding from National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>Researchers uncovered the foundations of biology by using E. coli as a model organism. But over-reliance on this microbe can lead to knowledge blind spots with implications for antibiotic resistance.Megan Keller, Ph.D. Candidate in Microbiology, Cornell UniversityTobias Dörr, Associate Professor of Microbiology, Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1958732023-01-06T13:30:53Z2023-01-06T13:30:53ZVisualizing the inside of cells at previously impossible resolutions provides vivid insights into how they work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501408/original/file-20221215-16-mtk39u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1078%2C913&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cryo-electron tomography shows what molecules look like in high-resolution – in this case, the virus that causes COVID-19.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nanographics.at/projects/coronavirus-3d/">Nanographics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>All life is <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/intro-to-biology/what-is-biology/a/what-is-life">made up of cells</a> several magnitudes <a href="https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cells/scale/">smaller than a grain of salt</a>. Their seemingly simple-looking structures mask the intricate and complex molecular activity that enables them to carry out the functions that sustain life. Researchers are beginning to be able to visualize this activity to a level of detail they haven’t been able to before.</p>
<p>Biological structures can be visualized by either starting at the level of the whole organism and working down, or starting at the level of single atoms and working up. However, there has been a resolution gap between a cell’s smallest structures, such as the cytoskeleton that supports the cell’s shape, and its largest structures, such as the ribosomes that make proteins in cells.</p>
<p>By analogy of Google Maps, while scientists have been able to see entire cities and individual houses, they did not have the tools to see how the houses came together to make up neighborhoods. Seeing these neighborhood-level details is essential to being able to understand how individual components work together in the environment of a cell.</p>
<p>New tools are steadily bridging this gap. And ongoing development of one particular technique, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.13948">cryo-electron tomography, or cryo-ET</a>, has the potential to deepen how researchers study and understand how cells function in health and disease. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Cryo-EM won the 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As the former <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/jeremy-berg-named-science-editor-chief">editor-in-chief of Science magazine</a> and as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MZ6qrPUAAAAJ&hl=en">researcher</a> who has studied hard-to-visualize large protein structures for decades, I have witnessed astounding progress in the development of tools that can determine biological structures in detail. Just as it becomes easier to understand how complicated systems work when you know what they look like, understanding how biological structures fit together in a cell is key to understanding how organisms function.</p>
<h2>A brief history of microscopy</h2>
<p>In the 17th century, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.150019">light microscopy</a> first revealed the existence of cells. In the 20th century, electron microscopy offered even greater detail, revealing the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1974/summary/">elaborate structures within cells</a>, including organelles like the endoplasmic reticulum, a complex network of membranes that play key roles in protein synthesis and transport.</p>
<p>From the 1940s to 1960s, biochemists worked to separate cells into their molecular components and learn how to determine the 3D structures of proteins and other macromolecules at or near atomic resolution. This was first done using X-ray crystallography to visualize the structure of <a href="https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=3015">myoglobin</a>, a protein that supplies oxygen to muscles. </p>
<p>Over the past decade, techniques based on <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2002/press-release/">nuclear magnetic resonance</a>, which produces images based on how atoms interact in a magnetic field, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2015.02.019">cryo-electron microscopy</a> have rapidly increased the number and complexity of the structures scientists can visualize.</p>
<h2>What is cryo-EM and cryo-ET?</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-uncovered-the-structure-of-the-key-protein-for-a-future-hepatitis-c-vaccine-heres-how-they-did-it-193705">Cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM</a>, uses a camera to detect how a beam of electrons is deflected as the electrons pass through a sample to visualize structures at the molecular level. Samples are rapidly frozen to protect them from radiation damage. Detailed models of the structure of interest are made by taking multiple images of individual molecules and averaging them into a 3D structure.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4115">Cryo-ET</a> shares similar components with cryo-EM but uses different methods. Because most cells are too thick to be imaged clearly, a region of interest in a cell is first thinned by using an ion beam. The sample is then tilted to take multiple pictures of it at different angles, analogous to a CT scan of a body part – although in this case the imaging system itself is tilted, rather than the patient. These images are then combined by a computer to produce a 3D image of a portion of the cell. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501410/original/file-20221215-27-mqhygu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cryo-ET image of algal chloroplast" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501410/original/file-20221215-27-mqhygu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501410/original/file-20221215-27-mqhygu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501410/original/file-20221215-27-mqhygu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501410/original/file-20221215-27-mqhygu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501410/original/file-20221215-27-mqhygu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501410/original/file-20221215-27-mqhygu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501410/original/file-20221215-27-mqhygu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">This is a cryo-ET image of the chloroplast of an algal cell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04889">Engel et al. (2015)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The resolution of this image is high enough that researchers – or computer programs – can identify the individual components of different structures in a cell. Researchers have used this approach, for example, to show how proteins move and are degraded inside an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1905641117">algal cell</a>.</p>
<p>Many of the steps researchers once had to do manually to determine the structures of cells are becoming automated, allowing scientists to identify new structures at vastly higher speeds. For example, combining cryo-EM with artificial intelligence programs like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2">AlphaFold</a> can facilitate image interpretation by predicting protein structures that have not yet been characterized. </p>
<h2>Understanding cell structure and function</h2>
<p>As imaging methods and workflows improve, researchers will be able to tackle some key questions in cell biology with different strategies.</p>
<p>The first step is to decide what cells and which regions within those cells to study. Another visualization technique called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.14421">correlated light and electron microscopy, or CLEM</a>, uses fluorescent tags to help locate regions where interesting processes are taking place in living cells.</p>
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<span class="caption">This is a cryo-EM image of a human T-cell leukemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cryo-em-structure-of-human-t-cell-leukemia-virus-royalty-free-image/1300707029">vdvornyk/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>Comparing the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2018.07.014">genetic difference between cells</a> can provide additional insight. Scientists can look at cells that are unable to carry out particular functions and see how this is reflected in their structure. This approach can also help researchers study how cells interact with each other.</p>
<p>Cryo-ET is likely to remain a specialized tool for some time. But further technological developments and increasing accessibility will allow the scientific community to examine the link between cellular structure and function at previously inaccessible levels of detail. I anticipate seeing new theories on how we understand cells, moving from disorganized bags of molecules to intricately organized and dynamic systems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Berg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many microscopy techniques have won Nobel Prizes over the years. Advancements like cryo-ET that allow scientists to see the individual atoms of cells can reveal their biological functions.Jeremy Berg, Professor of Computational and Systems Biology, Associate Senior Vice Chancellor for Science Strategy and Planning, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1966522023-01-05T13:26:24Z2023-01-05T13:26:24ZNanomedicines for various diseases are in development – but research facilities produce vastly inconsistent results on how the body will react to them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502207/original/file-20221220-6047-jjdm3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2048%2C1637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nanoparticles (white disks) can be used to deliver treatment to cells (blue).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/KjvnhT">Brenda Melendez and Rita Serda/National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2018.00360">Nanomedicines</a> took the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers are using these very small and intricate materials to develop diagnostic tests and treatments. Nanomedicine is already used for various diseases, such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-0757-7">COVID-19 vaccines</a> and therapies for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2017.167">cardiovascular disease</a>. The “nano” refers to the use of particles that are only a few hundred nanometers in size, which is <a href="https://www.nano.gov/nanotech-101/what/nano-size">significantly smaller than</a> the width of a human hair.</p>
<p>Although researchers have developed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-022-00922-5">several methods</a> to improve the reliability of nanotechnologies, the field still faces one major roadblock: a lack of a standardized way to analyze <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2016.08.011">biological identity</a>, or how the body will react to nanomedicines. This is essential information in evaluating how effective and safe new treatments are. </p>
<p>I’m a researcher studying <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D-qg1JwAAAAJ&hl=en">overlooked factors in nanomedicine development</a>. In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34438-8">recently published research</a>, my colleagues and I found that analyses of biological identity are highly inconsistent across proteomics facilities that specialize in studying proteins.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gold is one of the materials used in nanotechnologies.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Inconsistent results</h2>
<p>Nanomedicines, just like with all medications, are surrounded by proteins from the body once they come into contact with the bloodstream. This protein coating, known as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.12.108">protein corona</a>, gives nanoparticles a biological identity that determines how the body will recognize and interact with it, like how the immune system has specific reactions against certain pathogens and allergens.</p>
<p>Knowing the precise type, amount and configuration of the proteins and other biomolecules attached to the surface of nanomedicines is critical to determine safe and effective dosages for treatments. However, one of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27643-4">few available approaches</a> to analyze the composition of protein coronas requires instruments that many nanomedicine laboratories lack. So these labs typically send their samples to separate proteomics facilities to do the analysis for them. Unfortunately, many facilities use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0037-y">different sample preparation methods and instruments</a>, which can lead to differences in results.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502192/original/file-20221220-20-iflyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cryo-electron microscopy images of protein coronas on nanoparticles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502192/original/file-20221220-20-iflyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502192/original/file-20221220-20-iflyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502192/original/file-20221220-20-iflyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502192/original/file-20221220-20-iflyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502192/original/file-20221220-20-iflyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502192/original/file-20221220-20-iflyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502192/original/file-20221220-20-iflyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protein coronas give nanoparticles their biological identities. Images A to C show nanoparticles without protein coronas, while images D to F show proteins (black dots) coating the surface of the particles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34438-8">Ashkarran et al. (2022)/Nature Communications</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We wanted to test how consistently these proteomics facilities analyzed protein corona samples. To do this, my colleagues and I sent biologically identical protein coronas to 17 different labs in the U.S. for analysis. </p>
<p>We had striking results: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34438-8">Less than 2%</a> of the proteins the labs identified were the same. </p>
<p>Our results reveal an extreme lack of consistency in the analyses researchers use to understand how nanomedicines work in the body. This may pose a significant challenge not only to ensuring the accuracy of diagnostics, but also the effectiveness and safety of treatments based on nanomedicines.</p>
<h2>Why standardize nanomedicine?</h2>
<p>Researchers have been working to improve the safety and efficacy of nanomedicine through various approaches. These include modifying study protocols, methodologies and analytical techniques to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0246-4">standardize the field</a> and improve the reliability of nanomedicine data.</p>
<p>Aligned with these efforts, my team and I have identified several critical but often overlooked factors that can influence the performance of a nanomedicine, such as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23230-9">person’s sex</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C4BM00131A">prior medical conditions</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C9NH00097F">disease type</a>. Taking these factors into account when designing studies and interpreting results could enable researchers to produce more reliable and accurate data and lead to better nanomedicine treatments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196652/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morteza Mahmoudi receives funding from the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (grant DK131417). He is affiliated with PGWC, NanoServ, and Target's Tip. He is a co-founder and director of the Academic Parity Movement (<a href="http://www.paritymovement.org">www.paritymovement.org</a>), a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing academic discrimination, violence and incivility. He receives royalties/honoraria for his published books, plenary lectures, and licensed patents. </span></em></p>The proteins that cover nanoparticles are essential to understanding how they work in the body. Across 17 proteomics facilities in the US, less than 2% of the identified proteins were identical.Morteza Mahmoudi, Assistant Professor of Radiology, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939122022-11-21T18:46:02Z2022-11-21T18:46:02ZCollaborative Indigenous Research is a way to repair the legacy of harmful research practices<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495205/original/file-20221114-16-brw27j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=92%2C0%2C4619%2C3079&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">University research has a legacy of doing harm to Indigenous communities. However, a new collaborative project is showing how research can be done in a better and inclusive way.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A recent disclosure from <a href="https://peabody.harvard.edu/home">Harvard’s Peabody Museum</a> has brought attention, yet again, to the need to rethink the relationships between universities and Indigenous communities.</p>
<p>Recently, the Peabody Museum <a href="https://peabody.harvard.edu/woodbury-collection">announced that it has been holding locks of hair</a> collected throughout the 1930s from more than 700 Indigenous children forced into residential boarding schools in the U.S. </p>
<p>The museum has apologized, vowing to return the hair clippings to Indigenous communities. In their written statement, they acknowledge that the clippings were taken at a time in which it was common practice in anthropology to use hair samples to “<a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/11/12/peabody-hair-samples/">justify racial hierarchies and categories</a>.”</p>
<p>If you grew up outside of Indigenous communities, Black communities, poor communities, and/or disabled communities, you might be surprised to learn that many have had negative experiences with university-based researchers. Nearly 25 years ago, renowned Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith observed that research is “<a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/decolonizing-methodologies-9781786998132/">probably one of the dirtiest words in the Indigenous world’s vocabulary</a>.”</p>
<p>Some of the studies that have done Indigenous communities the most harm were used to justify genocide and land dispossession. These weren’t research as we would understand it today — they were white supremacist propaganda. But they are still the legacy of many contemporary fields of science and social science. </p>
<p>Some of these studies amounted to forms of torture deployed on Indigenous people, alongside Black people, people in concentration camps, disabled people and poor people under the auspices of science. These are the sorts of studies that necessitated the <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/history-and-role-institutional-review-boards-useful-tension/2009-04">introduction of institutional ethics review boards in universities and communities</a>. </p>
<h2>Legacy of harmful research</h2>
<p>Some studies have been coercive, not allowing Indigenous communities the ability to refuse or withdraw. Others have been conducted under duress. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/04/25/306832661/blood-victory-in-medical-research-dispute">Some are deceptive</a>. These are studies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/420111a">that say they are about one thing, but are really about something else</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/expertise-not-extraction-how-to-centre-indigenous-knowledge-in-a-time-of-crisis/">Many other studies are extractive</a>. Researchers pop up for a time, take what they need and leave. Far more are harmful because they over-promise (they can’t possibly generate the change that Indigenous communities desire). Or they are simply time-wasters: they learn something that the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-science-takes-so-long-catch-up-traditional-knowledge-180968216/">community already knew</a>, but no one seemed to listen to them about. </p>
<p>Because of this history and contemporary situation, many people who grow up in Indigenous families are <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/overcome-decades-mistrust-workshop-aims-train-indigenous-researchers-be-their-own">critical of researchers</a> who don’t appreciate the real stakes, or real benefits, of research for Indigenous communities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man sitting at a table speaking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous Peoples have always been researchers. Many Indigenous worldviews, knowledge systems and values are based in inquiry, curiosity and sharing the results of inquiry through storytelling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Learning from Indigenous ways of knowing</h2>
<p>Since time immemorial, Indigenous communities <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rSHifM35i4">have engaged in research activities</a>, even when these approaches to research have been <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/indigenous-research-methodologies/book241776">dismissed as unsystematic or not objective</a>. Indigenous Peoples have always been researchers. Indeed, so many Indigenous worldviews, knowledge systems and values are based in inquiry, curiosity and <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487525644/indigenous-methodologies/">sharing the results of inquiry</a> through storytelling. </p>
<p>In addition to these ways of knowing, for more than two decades another approach to research with Indigenous communities has been practiced by researchers working inside and outside of the university. This approach, what I and others have come to call <a href="https://www.collaborativeindigenousresearch.com/">Collaborative Indigenous Research</a>, is a deliberate challenge to the harmful ways university-based researchers have engaged with Indigenous communities. </p>
<p>This approach is rooted in the belief that Indigenous communities have long pasts, and even longer futures. It begins with the premise that Indigenous people have expertise about their everyday lives and the institutions and policies that affect them. This expertise reveals how institutions and policies impede their hopes and dreams. Collaborative Indigenous Research examines how Indigenous communities can bring about change to policy, practice, and relationships to lands, waters and one another.</p>
<p>This is research that honours Indigenous knowledges, not as something from the past, but as something that is enlivened through our collaboration. This is research that focuses on supporting the agency and self-determination of Indigenous communities, often in collaboration with Black communities and communities that have also experienced colonial violence. </p>
<h2>Collaborative Indigenous research</h2>
<p>One of the barriers that has kept people from learning how to do Collaborative Indigenous Research is the lack of support for Indigenous scholars who might otherwise be able to mentor newcomers to the field. This is a practice that, like so many other Indigenous ways of knowing, is best learned by doing, and from someone who is invested in the learner’s future. However, the same harmful aspects of university-based research that make Indigenous people suspicious of some research are also at work when Indigenous students stay away from careers in universities. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.collaborativeindigenousresearch.com/">Collaborative Indigenous Research (CIR) Digital Garden</a> is one way of removing that barrier, by creating a space for learning, sharing and connecting across the internet in order to grow inspiration and expertise. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.evetuck.com/bio">As an Indigenous scholar</a>, I am often asked how research with Indigenous Peoples can be done in a more ethical way. This project — which took five years to build — is an answer. The CIR Digital Garden is a new online platform where users can search, read and post brief profiles of their studies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people hold a sign that reads: history erased but never displaced. We are here." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eve Tuck and Tkaronto CIRCLE Lab youth researchers and collaborators hold a hand-made banner that reads: ‘History erased but never displaced. WE ARE HERE.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Eve Tuck)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/collaborativeindigenousresearch/research">Each profile includes key information about a study</a>, including location, communities, research questions and methods. Profiles use categories and tags to make it easier to search and browse the site — think Pokémon cards, but for Indigenous research. </p>
<p>Unlike other research databases, the profiles also include the theories of change — how the collaborators think we can bring about social change — and what constitutes evidence in each study. The CIR Digital Garden isn’t behind a paywall or written only for an academic audience. The goal is to show how collaborative Indigenous research is already a thriving practice, with important place-based specificities represented in the various profiles.</p>
<p>To give new users a taste of what the capabilities of the garden are, we have already pre-loaded nearly 200 studies, so that you can search and read the types of profiles we hope will someday fill the garden. We hope that these initial 200 will be just a fraction of all of those that university and community-based researchers will add. We have an editorial team in place to review and support contributors in creating their study profiles.</p>
<p>We hope that this garden finds those who have a strong desire to do research differently. We hope this garden can be a gathering place for those who know this work is important, and might thrive with the support that isn’t often available in universities. We hope that we can nurture growth away from the harmful legacies of research done to Indigenous communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193912/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eve Tuck receives funding from SSHRC, The William T Grant Foundation, and The Spencer Foundation. </span></em></p>Harmful research practices have done serious damage to Indigenous communities and created distrust. The Collaborative Indigenous Research Digital Garden is one way to repair that damage.Eve Tuck, Canada Research Chair, Indigenous Methodologies with Youth and Communities, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1899232022-09-26T16:31:16Z2022-09-26T16:31:16ZPsychedelic drugs: how to tell good research from bad<p>Research with psychedelic drugs has made a dramatic comeback amid a heady mix of softening societal attitudes, the lure of commercial opportunity, misgivings about the “war on drugs”, and the desire to develop new ways to treat mental health conditions. </p>
<p>So you might have read in the media that there’s a new study which shows that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/23/ketamine-can-it-really-be-antidepressant">ketamine can banish depression</a>, or <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/magic-mushrooms-mental-health-treatment-b1986577.html">psilocybin is effective at treating post-traumatic stress disorder</a>, or <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/akz5m4/can-microdosing-lsd-or-mushrooms-help-creativity-productivity-and-mental-health">microdosing LSD makes you more creative</a>.</p>
<p>In this fervour, which research is worth your time and, more importantly, your trust? Of course, what’s worth your time depends on what you want. </p>
<p>I’m a doctor, a drug researcher and a clinical trialist. As such, I’m interested in whether psychedelic therapy can be a new form of medicine. That question needs clinical trial evidence. That’s what I’ll be concentrating on here, although some of the principles apply to medical research more broadly.</p>
<h2>Journals</h2>
<p>First, your source. Good scientific research is published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Peer reviewed means that independent experts have read and anonymously criticised the paper. This is an important form of scrutiny. If the journal you’re looking at does not support peer reviewing, move on.</p>
<p>Some journals claim to be high-quality enterprises, publishing peer-reviewed articles but are actually <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03759-y">pop-up money-making schemes</a> that publish anything. </p>
<p>Spotting these is a bit like spotting a spam email or social media post. Poor grammar, spelling and formatting mistakes, substandard websites and too-good-to-be-true statements are all telltale signs of a journal that wouldn’t let the truth get in the way of a good publishing fee.</p>
<p>In contrast, good quality journals are generally long established, are indexed in scientific databases such as <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/">PubMed</a>, and usually have good “impact factors” (a measure of how often the journals’ papers are cited). While this isn’t a perfect metric, it is useful as a guide, and it will be stated on the journal’s homepage. A higher number is more reassuring.</p>
<p>With a good quality journal, you’re halfway there.</p>
<h2>Authors</h2>
<p>Before you read anything about the paper, look to see who the authors are, where they work and what their disclosures and funding sources are (this is usually stated at the end of an article). Authors who are top of their field often have great reputations. </p>
<p>But they also have more to lose by results that don’t fit their theories. They are more likely to be paid consultants for companies seeking to commercialise new treatments, too.</p>
<p>Similarly, just because a study comes from a pioneering, high-quality institution doesn’t mean you should blindly trust it. In fact, those very teams that were the pioneers are precisely the ones who might also be heavily biased. Put another way, why would we have got into such a stigmatised field if we didn’t hold a strongly positive preconception? </p>
<p>That said, institutions and research teams with good reputations earn them because their peers respect their methods and believe their results. So, overall, go for the most well-respected authors, but have in the back of your mind the other factors at play.</p>
<h2>Data</h2>
<p>Now take a look at the paper itself. For clinical research, the multi-centre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial is king. Almost all psychedelic research is not this (yet).</p>
<p>Initial trials take place in one institution. That’s fine, but it doesn’t say anything about whether the treatment works beyond that institution. For that, you need a multi-centre trial. The more centres, the better. </p>
<p>If it works in lots of centres, there’s more reason to believe it’ll work in the real world. This is called “generalisation”, and it’s an unanswered question for psychedelics.</p>
<p>Randomised and placebo-controlled refer to the participants being randomly allocated to two or more groups, one of which is treated with a placebo (dummy pill). Unless you have a placebo control group to compare with, you don’t know if the effect you observe in the treatment group might not have happened anyway. </p>
<p>Similarly, if there is no randomisation, then any effect you observe might be due to something else common to one of the groups.</p>
<p>Early psychedelics trials were often not randomised or controlled. That’s fine, but you can’t conclude much from these “pilot studies”. They just show that the research can be done.</p>
<h2>Large trials</h2>
<p>The more participants a trial has, the more “<a href="https://www.scribbr.com/statistics/statistical-power/">statistical power</a>” it has to detect a true effect (or a true absence of an effect). This often needs hundreds, even thousands, of participants. </p>
<p>These trials cost a lot, which is why many large-scale clinical trials are funded by companies - it’s the only way to raise the money to get the trial done. But don’t dismiss commercial trials. </p>
<p>Yes, profit and healthcare aren’t easy bedfellows. But commercial trials are far more heavily regulated than non-commercial trials. Almost all the medicines we have today were licensed based on commercial trials. </p>
<h2>Pre-registering</h2>
<p>All clinical trials should have a “pre-registered primary outcome”. The primary outcome can be anything: a blood test result, a neuroimaging finding, or a measure of depression. It is that outcome that the trial is designed around. </p>
<p>Pre-registering happens on websites like <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/">clinicaltrials.gov</a> before the trial starts. If the researchers haven’t pre-registered their hypothesis, their primary outcome measure and their methods of analysis, then they could have cherrypicked the results you’re reading. </p>
<p>Put another way, if you <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/were-all-p-hacking-now/">torture your data hard enough</a>, it will tell you whatever you want. This is one of the great research sins. </p>
<p>If I flip a coin ten times, then keep doing that again and again, at some point I’ll get ten heads, just by chance. It’s the same principle here. The more measures I put in a trial, and the more ways I choose to analyse the data, the more likely I’ll get a “significant” result.</p>
<p>A final thought before you go. No one clinical trial or piece of research can tell you anything for certain. The more a result is replicated, the more believable it becomes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189923/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Rucker receives funding from the National Institute for Health Research, Compass Pathfinder, Beckley PsyTech and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.</span></em></p>There is a lot of hype in psychedelics research at the moment. Here’s how to tell which research is good and which isn’t.James Rucker, Senior Clinical Lecturer & Consultant Psychiatrist, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1900762022-09-20T13:09:39Z2022-09-20T13:09:39ZAfrican ubuntu can deepen how research is done<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485073/original/file-20220916-1645-ozj94f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New knowledge can sprout from different research approaches.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">boonchai wedmakawand/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many academic studies have been centred on Western theories and methodologies for a long time. This approach to research is broadly defined as “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176704000458">universalist</a>”. It assumes that “one-size-fits-all” and set norms can be applied across cultures. For example, Western ideas about identity revolve around the individual. That shapes how research is conducted: it focuses mainly on the individual and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077800416657105?journalCode=qixa">emphasises analysis at the individual level</a>. Using Western approaches in non-Western contexts misses out on contextual issues such as power relations between an individual and their community.</p>
<p>But over the past few years there has been <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-019-04338-x">increasing</a> <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04592-4">discussion</a> in research circles about the need to draw on – and apply – more diverse theories of knowledge and approaches in generating knowledge. </p>
<p>“Contextualised” methodologies have been offered as the alternative. This involves taking a region’s particular cultural, demographic, geographical and socio-economic realities into account when conducting research. There’s <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2631787719879705">a challenge</a> with this approach, too. It may mean that academic research is within the reach of a limited group of people and becomes disconnected from broader academic engagements.</p>
<p>In a recent paper, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-022-05220-z">we argue</a> that researchers’ decision along neatly divided lines – to choose either universalist or contextualised methodologies – is a false dilemma. We argue that, in researching non-Western contexts such as sub-Saharan Africa, researchers need to fuse conventional Western theories of knowledge and local theories of knowledge. This enables researchers to gain from the rigour associated with conventional methodologies while approaching research from a culturally sensitive philosophical basis. </p>
<p>In our paper, we focus on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13645579.2018.1432404">ubuntu</a>. This South African concept embodies the collectivist way of life of many societies in sub-Saharan Africa. The value of ubuntu goes beyond human conduct. It also offers researchers a relational way of knowing that accommodates knowledge of the context that is being studied as well as participants’ values.</p>
<p>We argue that ubuntu can contribute to the way research is carried out, by complementing universalist methodologies. This approach is gaining ground in research circles. For instance, Canadian academics used it to conduct <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1744987115619207">health research</a> in Mozambique.</p>
<p>The complementary use of ubuntu helps to remove colonial or oppressive lenses from academics’ work. It offers a way for research participants’ values and realities to be recognised and means they are actively involved in creating knowledge about themselves and their contexts.</p>
<h2>Shaping research</h2>
<p>We identified four practical ways that a complementary use of ubuntu can positively shape how research is done. </p>
<p>The first centres on the research agenda. This should be community-based and community-centred. Researchers need to interrogate what their research aims to achieve, in whose interest do they conduct research, and who the research outcomes intend to serve. Bagele Chilisa, a professor of research methodologies, <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/indigenous-research-methodologies/book241776">points out</a> how efforts to address the AIDS pandemic in many sub-Saharan African societies failed because the research agenda, methodological and analytical tools were driven by donor agencies. Community-centred research allows participants to be equal partners in knowledge generation.</p>
<p>Then there’s access. Accessing the “field” (communities) must be done tactfully. In collectivist societies, a researcher should be aware that consent may go beyond the individual. This may mean seeking the permission (usually verbal) of the individual’s immediate family or community leader. Research may be targeting an individual but it may also be important to obtain consent from their family, for example. Doing so can secure the individual’s full participation: they are given indirect permission to draw examples of their experiences from their community.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">What Archbishop Tutu's ubuntu credo teaches the world about justice and harmony</a>
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<p>The third is power relations. Unequal power relations between the researcher and participants may not be completely eliminated by our complementary approach. But it is a valuable way to remind researchers that their work ought to hinge on ubuntu principles like respect and harmony. This can ensure that research is conducted in a less exploitative and more collaborative manner that values participants’ knowledge and knowledge systems.</p>
<p>Finally, context-sensitive methods are key. Researchers focusing on sub-Saharan Africa should explore and adopt alternative, culturally appropriate knowledge systems and methodologies. Knowledge in collectivistic societies is usually embodied in and transmitted through performative communication modes such as folklore, taboos, totems, and cosmological beliefs. These knowledge modes may not be easily accommodated by Western approaches. Using local knowledge and ways of knowing will expose research to criticism. This can enhance its value and significance. </p>
<h2>A complementary approach</h2>
<p>Our paper contends that there is no “either or” at play when considering how best to study non-Western contexts. The importance of decolonising research and research methodology does not negate the usefulness of conventional, Western methodologies. Rather, knowledge generation should be approached through the lens of the context under study.</p>
<p><em>Professor Smaranda Boroş and Professor Anita Bosch co-authored the research on which this article is based.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Obaa Akua Konadu-Osei receives funding from the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) for providing the scholarship for the doctoral programme on which this article is based.</span></em></p>Researchers in sub-Saharan Africa ought to fuse conventional Western theories of knowledge and local theories of knowledge.Obaa Akua Konadu-Osei, Ph.D. Student, Business Management & Administration, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1809402022-04-27T17:35:15Z2022-04-27T17:35:15ZStudying how people spend their time reveals how societies differ and change over time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459400/original/file-20220425-14-6zhsmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C4165%2C2743&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tracking time spent on various activities reveals how and what people prioritize in their lives.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As I’ve been organizing this year’s <a href="https://www.iatur.org/">International Association of Time Use Research (IATUR)</a> <a href="https://www.iatur.org/events/detail/cb2a5e85-70e0-4faa-9ad1-ef8057f7b97a">conference in Montréal</a>, I’ve been asked: What do you mean by time use research? </p>
<p>Behind this simple and descriptive name lies a body of diverse research that has advanced understanding on many contemporary social issues. But it seems that the concept is so broad that people have a hard time making sense of it.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47155-8_1">Time use research</a> is a research method that investigates how people use their time. Time use surveys gather data sequentially in the form of a journal of daily activities, from a person’s rise in the morning until bedtime. Each activity is recorded in a diary along with its location, and beginning and end time. Other attributes of activities are sometimes recorded, like who was present and the degree of enjoyment of the activity. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459662/original/file-20220426-22-e3yp71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a hand holding a smart phone with blurred purple icons floating above it" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459662/original/file-20220426-22-e3yp71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459662/original/file-20220426-22-e3yp71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459662/original/file-20220426-22-e3yp71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459662/original/file-20220426-22-e3yp71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459662/original/file-20220426-22-e3yp71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459662/original/file-20220426-22-e3yp71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459662/original/file-20220426-22-e3yp71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">App-based data collection technologies capture more information while reducing the burden of response.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Tracking time</h2>
<p>Time use surveys help gather detailed information on the time people spend doing various activities — including work, travel, leisure, chores or sleep — and their scheduling and sequencing over a day. </p>
<p>Traditional use of paper-based diaries have been adapted in response to changing technologies. Increasingly, <a href="https://www.motusresearch.io/">online</a> or <a href="https://www.hbits.io/en/">phone-based</a> apps are used to ease the burden for respondents. </p>
<p>I’ve started using these surveys to conduct research in my field of transport and mobility, but others use them in public health, sociology, economics, psychology and leisure studies. While transportation studies typically rely on travel surveys, time use surveys can additionally nest people’s travels within their daily schedules and lifestyles. </p>
<p>Time use surveys were useful in my research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017708985">the relationship between telecommuting and travel</a>, and whether our increasing use of information technologies to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tbs.2018.10.002">shop, socialize and access information decreases the amount of travel we do</a>. </p>
<p>For others, information gathered through time use surveys can help understand issues such as <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/time-use#are-parents-spending-less-time-with-their-kids">gender and cultural</a> differences, assess the impact of policies by comparing <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/time-use#do-workers-in-richer-countries-work-longer-hours">jurisdictions</a> and observe the evolution of societies’ use of time.</p>
<h2>Over a century of data</h2>
<p>If this field of study is relatively little known, it is perhaps because it proposes a generalist approach that more field-specific data collection completes, or simply because the popular press focuses on research findings, not on how they are arrived at.</p>
<p>Yet time use surveys have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6760-y">used at least as early as 1900</a> and have helped generate significant insights about society. This includes developing important early knowledge on the <a href="https://archive.org/details/howworkingmenspe00bevarich">labour force and patterns of work</a>, <a href="https://www.timeuse.org/sites/default/files/2018-02/CTUR%20WP%202%202018_0.pdf">especially in rural areas</a> and on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/000271622914300105">women’s economic contribution to households</a>.</p>
<p>New questions are emerging and driving continued interest in time use surveys. People are spending more time online and alone, and tasks and activities are becoming more fragmented. Our impacts on climate change, for example, can be examined by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.07.044">studying time-based energy demands in residential buildings</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1227932325113192448"}"></div></p>
<p>And time use surveys will prove useful in understanding the changes that crises like the COVID-19 <a href="https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/time-use/time-use-expert-group/TU-during-crises-instrument-final.pdf">pandemic</a> have wrought, and how these will appear over time.</p>
<h2>New technologies</h2>
<p>Technology has become more powerful and able to combine and process larger amounts of data. Recent research is becoming possible because of innovative ways to administer surveys or to combine them with other forms of data capture. For instance, by enabling passive (but consensual) data capture, smartphone or tablet-based time use surveys can collect additional information, including geolocation for activities and periods when the device was under use. Time spent in and out of home, multitasking and time spent online can now be assessed more accurately. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y7h0WSSKZbE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Time use research has also combined time use surveys with wearable devices and bodycams to add context.</span></figcaption>
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<p>There are also new approaches to presenting data, such as this dynamic visual representation from the <a href="https://www.ksh.hu/interaktiv/timeuse/index.html#en">Hungarian Central Statistical Office</a>, that compares the daily habits of populations of different countries.</p>
<h2>Global research</h2>
<p>Time use research now takes place across the globe, and data <a href="https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/timeuse/23012019%20ICATUS.pdf">harmonization</a> efforts are becoming increasingly important. Now time use surveys are being used by the UN’s <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs">Sustainable Development Goals</a> to <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/?Text=&Goal=5&Target=5.4">measure gender differences in unpaid labor</a> among other things.</p>
<p>Researchers are increasingly turning to time use research for detailed information. A <a href="https://www.iatur.org/events/page/pre-conference-workshop-2">pre-conference workshop at the 2022 IATUR conference</a> will focus on helping improve measurement and propose new opportunities for time use research in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ugo Lachapelle receives funding from various organisations including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The conference mentioned here has also received funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>Tracking how people use their time is increasing in popularity, but it is a surprisingly under-used research method considering how much information it can provide in various fields.Ugo Lachapelle, Professeur au département d'études urbaines et touristiques, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1746462022-01-31T22:02:57Z2022-01-31T22:02:57ZYoung Canadians are asking to be included in research — here’s how to engage them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443578/original/file-20220131-142871-4s1lkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=217%2C0%2C4702%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Empowering young people to make contributions to research results in deeper, richer, more usable research evidence.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The issues and experiences that matter most to young Canadians right now might surprise you. They are ready to lead a new conversation. </p>
<p>My research interests have long focused on how the health and social issues of the day, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are being experienced by young Canadians. Young people have a right to be engaged, and a right to be heard in research.</p>
<p>Curious about how this incredibly dynamic, vulnerable population could contribute to research, I discovered that among the most important lessons young people would have us learn is how best to engage them. This revelation led to the recently-established <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ingauge_manitoba/">IN•GAUGE research program</a> headquartered at the University of Manitoba. </p>
<h2>Engaging young people</h2>
<p>IN•GAUGE aims to improve the lives of children and youth by taking an innovative approach to research called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2012.04.037">integrated knowledge translation</a>. This approach assumes that complex health and social problems are best explored, explained and solved in partnership with those who have the lived experience, and the power to influence change.</p>
<p>IN•GAUGE invites young people ages eight to 24 to join or form a research team and submit research topic ideas. But more importantly, the IN•GAUGE research program creatively engages young people in a research process of their own design. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Video expressing the words, metaphors and visuals used by young people to describe their experiences with anxiety. From the study ‘Youth voices: Their lives and experiences living with an anxiety disorder.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>When young people are engaged in the research process, results are deeper, richer and have more relevance. For example, using flexible, arts-based methods to gather research data from young people facilitates self-expression. It helps young people articulate, contextualize and make meaning of their lived experiences for a non-youth audience that may include educators, policy-makers or health-care and social service providers. </p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-18.3.2886">youth-led research study designed to relate the daily experience of living with anxiety</a>, participants chose photovoice — a process that involves individuals taking photos to document their experiences — and performance art to share their stories. </p>
<p>The resulting research evidence showed that young people conceal certain aspects of their mental illness and avoid seeking help. This points to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24740527.2020.1720501">gap in our understanding of their daily mental health experience and our approach to care</a>. </p>
<h2>Fluid engagement</h2>
<p>Young people in the IN•GAUGE research program are given the freedom to identify the research topics that matter most to them, and then to design and engage in research studies exploring those topics. Although issues related to capitalism, climate change, COVID-19, mental health, sex and gender were top-of-mind, these young Canadians were also interested in the way health and social research is being done.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Overthinking, from the study ‘Youth voices: Their lives and experiences living with an anxiety disorder.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>To avoid ethical, feasibility and other barriers to conducting research with young people, researchers will often explore sensitive health and social issues without them. This leaves a significant gap in what we know about the experience of being young or coming of age in today’s world. </p>
<p>Young people participating in IN•GAUGE say this is a trap researchers need to avoid because meaningful engagement with young people in research gives rise to richer, more culturally inclusive and more usable research evidence. </p>
<p>To help amplify the voices of young people in research, IN•GAUGE program participants have co-developed an important new tool that they are asking health and social researchers to start using as their guide: The Youth Engagement in Research Framework. </p>
<p>The Youth Engagement in Research Framework illustrates how youth say researchers can create a culturally inclusive research environment, how to meaningfully engage them in research, which conditions should be met throughout the research process and what they hope to get out of their experience. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oHOfCYcwKJI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trying to stay on the path, from the study ‘Youth voices: Their lives and experiences living with an anxiety disorder.’</span></figcaption>
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<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1609406917696743">IN•GAUGE research evidence shows</a> that at least seven fluid, adaptive engagement concepts are critical to the meaningful <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1609406920958974">engagement of children and youth in research</a>: </p>
<ul>
<li>understanding their motivations to engage, </li>
<li>discussing goals for the research process and implementation intentions, </li>
<li>supporting diverse expressions of youth identity, </li>
<li>addressing facilitators and barriers to engagement, </li>
<li>reinforcing the choice to engage in research, </li>
<li>building trusting relationships, and</li>
<li>respecting different forms of knowledge. </li>
</ul>
<p>Understanding young people and their take on current events has the potential to make the future more predictable, or at least more relatable. As we learn about youth culture and their social norms, we can better understand their shifting social values, make reasonable forecasts about the wants and needs of the population, and start adapting our health and social systems. </p>
<p>The Youth Engagement in Research Framework is a useful starting point for research projects involving young people. In the spirit of equity, diversity and inclusivity, IN•GAUGE understands research frameworks such as this are necessarily adaptive and responsive in nature, and welcomes feedback on researchers’ experiences using the framework.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440971/original/file-20220116-27-1ftzg46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Infographic showing ways to engage young people in research." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440971/original/file-20220116-27-1ftzg46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440971/original/file-20220116-27-1ftzg46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440971/original/file-20220116-27-1ftzg46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440971/original/file-20220116-27-1ftzg46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440971/original/file-20220116-27-1ftzg46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1165&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440971/original/file-20220116-27-1ftzg46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1165&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440971/original/file-20220116-27-1ftzg46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1165&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Youth Engagement in Research Framework was designed help amplify the voices of young people in research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IN-GAUGE</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberta L. Woodgate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Young people have a right to be engaged, and a right to be heard in research. When young people’s voices are included in the research process, the result is richer and more relevant research evidence.Roberta L. Woodgate, Canadian Research Chair (Tier 1) in Child & Family Engagement in Health Research & Healthcare, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1639682021-07-26T02:50:20Z2021-07-26T02:50:20ZFor too long, research was done on First Nations peoples, not with them. Universities can change this<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412798/original/file-20210723-27-12xha8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Warlpiri person showing a honey ant after hunting.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/">shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For too long, “research” was an activity done <em>to</em> or <em>on</em> Indigenous people; it was something imposed from the outside. This was especially the case for people who came from communities that were oppressed or marginalised in the colonialism of the 19th and 20th centuries.</p>
<p>Indigenous people throughout the world feel they have been the subjects of endless measurement, recording, and invasion of privacy with <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-2052-3">little or no apparent benefit</a> except for the scholars who make careers out of it. Māori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith calls this approach “research adventures in Indigenous lands” in her book <a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/decolonizing-methodologies-research-and-indigenous-peoples">Decolonising Methodologies</a>.</p>
<p>Our collaboratively edited volume, <a href="https://open.sydneyuniversitypress.com.au/9781743327579.html">Community-Led Research: Walking New Pathways Together</a>, represents a substantial step towards redressing power imbalances that continue to characterise much academic research.</p>
<p>The book asks how to move research done <em>to</em> and <em>on</em> people towards <em>for</em> and <em>with</em> people. It features both <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7xbFNiyDLlGwDjHDZmWkGhVTcpcjPZ0R">community and academic voices</a> and reflects on research that foregrounds non-academic priorities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-scholars-struggle-to-be-heard-in-the-mainstream-heres-how-journal-editors-and-reviewers-can-help-157860">Indigenous scholars struggle to be heard in the mainstream. Here's how journal editors and reviewers can help</a>
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<p>Since the global Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and beyond, academic researchers have recognised the political and moral responsibilities we have to those impacted by our studies. </p>
<p>To meet their responsibilities to different communities, researchers have incorporated methodologies such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>participatory action research, in which members of the community affected by the research actively participate in different parts of the project</p></li>
<li><p>public patient involvement, in which non-academic people work as employees or volunteers in organisations’ high-level work</p></li>
<li><p>community-based participatory research, which aims to equitably involve community members and others in research projects.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Each of these are slightly different, and are used variously in different disciplines, but their increasing presence affirms that involving communities in research is crucial for good research outcomes.</p>
<p>However, we have found approaches putting community at the centre of research beyond disciplinary siloes have not yet been documented in a comprehensive way. Our book builds on previous research by bringing together various community-led approaches, including from education and social work, health and medicine, and archaeology.</p>
<h2>Stories, not blueprints</h2>
<p>The chapters in our book reflect on community-led approaches to research in different spaces. They consider questions of identification of a community, appropriate protocols, and how to build positive collaborations. </p>
<p>The authors do not attempt to provide a template that can be applied in all research situations. Nor should they. As several chapters point out, there is a risk to “community-led” becoming another buzzword that ends up being appropriated for marketing or institutional propaganda. </p>
<p>We found community-led research must be built on a foundation of real relationships, mutual respect, and true reciprocity. We have all come into community-led research from different disciplinary perspectives and research experiences, as well as personal experiences. </p>
<p>As the editors of the volume, we were inspired by working with young people, Pacific Islanders and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Each of us has our own ideas about community-led research because of who we work with and where our interests lie. We reflect on our own work individually below to give a sense of different experiences in the field.</p>
<p><strong>Rawlings:</strong> While young people clearly make up a large and important part of our community, they often don’t get a seat at the table, even when research is “about” them. They can be seen as not critical or sophisticated enough to partner in research, or as needing “protection”, where they are seen as too innocent to take part in research about sensitive issues. </p>
<p>Imagine, then, co-designing research with LGBTIQA+ young people about their experiences of self-harm and suicide. While some young people may baulk at participating in this kind of discussion, research shows they benefit from conversations about their distress and trauma, particularly when they feel it might benefit others. </p>
<p>We found this to be the case as we co-designed our research in partnership with a youth advisory group. Not only did the young people benefit, but our research was higher quality, too.</p>
<p><strong>Flexner:</strong> My first trip to Vanuatu, in 2011, was almost a parody of cultural and linguistic misunderstanding, and geographical disorientation in the remote southern islands of <a href="https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JCA/article/view/9797">Erromango</a> and Tanna. </p>
<p>However, that initial fieldwork experience proved formative. It taught me how to work with community through the chiefs, elders, and knowledge holders facilitated by the Vanuatu Cultural Centre <em>filwokas</em> (fieldworkers). It set up intellectual engagement with cultural traditions encapsulated by the Melanesian term <em>kastom</em> (which translates as customs or traditions).</p>
<p>After a decade of research in Vanuatu, I still find myself learning new things, and finding new ways to work with the people who call these islands home.</p>
<p><strong>Riley:</strong> A huge concern in First Nations communities is in having no control over what research is undertaken or the right to veto the interpretation of data and findings. This is due to the fact much past research has helped to form government policies and practices concerning First Nations lives with little life improvement. This is clearly evidenced in current <a href="https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/closing-gap-targets-and-outcomes">Closing the Gap</a> statistics.</p>
<p>Often, First Nations peoples find they are called upon when the government and researchers arrive at an impasse and they do not know what else to do. Let us change this approach and ensure First Nations peoples are asked what research they want undertaken first and what benefits they want from the research. </p>
<p>That is, how can research improve First Nations people’s lives and enhance community development?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerian-academics-weigh-in-on-the-faults-and-frustrations-of-managing-covid-19-163896">Nigerian academics weigh in on the faults and frustrations of managing COVID-19</a>
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<h2>New pathways and old limitations</h2>
<p>Although we are inspired by the contributions in Community-Led Research: Walking New Pathways Together, we also need to recognise and acknowledge the limits of what we do. Universities remain institutions that many people, especially Indigenous people, associate with colonialism. </p>
<p>Besides our work in the communities, one of our great <a href="https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/an-archaeology-of-care/">challenges</a> is how to make the places where we work as academics more welcoming, inclusive, and egalitarian. Further, there are very real differences that regularly map onto differences in class, nation, geographical region, and identities.</p>
<p>It is impossible to dismantle 500 years of history in a single project, no matter how much goodwill the researchers and community establish together. Community-led research is in part about <a href="https://www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/core/journals/archaeological-dialogues/article/is-archaeology-conceivable-within-the-degrowth-movement/B3A29F1EFD318612B9F1250BD1A65265">changing academic research</a>, but it is also about changing other kinds of relationships in the world we all live in. </p>
<p>There is great promise in so many new approaches people are taking in their research, and their understandings of the groups of people they work with both inside and outside of academia. Community-led research is, however, a type of research that is still developing and we do not believe our work is finished. Rather, our pathway is just beginning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163968/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Rawlings receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DE210101619). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James L. Flexner receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DE130101703, DP160103578, LP170100048). He works for the University of Sydney. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynette Riley receives funding from NSW Aboriginal Languages Trust and an ARC Linkage Grant for SSESW, Research Centre for Children and Families. Lynette has also received past funding from SSESW, Research Centre for Children and Families.
Lynette is a member for the Labor Party, is a NAIDOC Committee member and is a board member for the Aboriginal Languages Trust.
Lynette is also affiliated with Aboriginal Affairs OCHRE Committee and is the chairperson for Yirigaa.
Yirigaa – Chairperson.</span></em></p>Historically, research has been imposed upon Indigenous people, instead of conducted with them. This is an exploration of more collaborative ways to research when working with Indigenous communities.Victoria Rawlings, Lecturer, University of Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of SydneyJames L. Flexner, Senior Lecturer in Historical Archaeology and Heritage, University of SydneyLynette Riley, Senior Lecturer, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1630002021-07-12T01:14:09Z2021-07-12T01:14:09ZStudying social media can give us insight into human behaviour. It can also give us nonsense<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409399/original/file-20210702-15-1muwihy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3875%2C2585&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the early days of social media, there has been <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01747-1">excitement</a> about how data traces left behind by users can be exploited for the study of human behaviour. Nowadays, reseachers who were once restricted to surveys or experiments in laboratory settings have access to huge amounts of “real-world” data from social media.</p>
<p>The research opportunities enabled by social media data are undeniable. However, researchers often analyse this data with tools that were not designed to manage the kind of large, noisy observational sets of data you find on social media.</p>
<p>We explored problems that researchers might encounter due to this mismatch between data and methods. </p>
<p>What we <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01133-5">found</a> is that the methods and statistics commonly used to provide evidence for seemingly significant scientific findings can also seem to support nonsensical claims. </p>
<h2>Absurd science</h2>
<p>The motivation for our paper comes from a series of research studies that deliberately present absurd scientific results. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.psychology.mcmaster.ca/bennett/psy710/readings/BennettDeadSalmon.pdf">One brain imaging study</a> appeared to show the neural activity of a dead salmon tasked with identifying emotions in photos. An <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a2533.abstract">analysis of longitudinal statistics from public health records</a> suggested that acne, height, and headaches are contagious. And an <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/PBR.17.6.923">analysis of human decision-making</a> seemingly indicated people can accurately judge the population size of different cities by ranking them in alphabetical order.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/one-reason-so-many-scientific-studies-may-be-wrong-66384">One reason so many scientific studies may be wrong</a>
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<p>Why would a researcher go out of their way to explore such ridiculous ideas? The value of these studies is not in presenting a new substantive finding. No serious researcher would argue, for example, that a dead salmon has a perspective on emotions in photos.</p>
<p>Rather, the nonsensical results highlight problems with the methods used to achieve them. Our research explores whether the same problems can afflict studies that use data from social media. And we discovered that indeed they do.</p>
<h2>Positive and negative results</h2>
<p>When a researcher seeks to address a research question, the method they use should be able to do two things: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>reveal an effect, when there is indeed a meaningful effect</p></li>
<li><p>show no effect, when there is no meaningful effect. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>For example, imagine you have chronic back pain and you take a medical test to find its cause. The test identifies a misaligned disc in your spine. This finding might be important and inform a treatment plan. </p>
<p>However, if you then discover the same test identifies this misaligned disc in a large proportion of the population who do not have chronic back pain, the finding becomes far less informative for you. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410707/original/file-20210712-70646-efbzq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410707/original/file-20210712-70646-efbzq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410707/original/file-20210712-70646-efbzq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410707/original/file-20210712-70646-efbzq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410707/original/file-20210712-70646-efbzq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410707/original/file-20210712-70646-efbzq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410707/original/file-20210712-70646-efbzq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like a spinal test that can’t tell the difference between people with back pain and people without, much social media research isn’t using the right tools for the job.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The fact the test fails to identify a relevant, distinguishing feature of negative cases (no back pain) from positive cases (back pain) does not mean the misaligned disc in your spine is non-existent. This part of the finding is as “real” as any finding. Yet the failure means the result is not useful: “evidence” that is as likely to be found when there is a meaningful effect (in this case, back pain) as when there is none is simply not diagnostic, and, as result, such evidence is uninformative.</p>
<h2>XYZ contagion</h2>
<p>Using the same rationale, we evaluated commonly used methods for analysing social media data — called “null hypothesis significance testing” and “correlational statistics” — by asking an absurd research question. </p>
<p>Past and current studies have tried to identify what factors influence Twitter users’ decisions to retweet other tweets. This is interesting both as a window into human thought and because resharing posts is a key mechanism by which messages are amplified or spread on social media.</p>
<p>So we decided to analyse Twitter data using the above standard methods to see whether a nonsensical effect we call “XYZ contagion” influences retweets. Specifically, we asked </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Does the number of Xs, Ys, and Zs in a tweet increase the probability of it being spread?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Upon analysing six datasets containing hundreds of thousands of tweets, the “answer” we found was yes. For example, in a dataset of 172,697 tweets about COVID-19, the presence of an X, Y, or Z in a tweet appeared to increase the message’s reach by a factor of 8%. </p>
<p>Needless to say, we do not believe the presence of Xs, Ys, and Zs is a central factor in whether people choose to retweet a message on Twitter. </p>
<p>However, like the medical test for diagnosing back pain, our finding shows that sometimes, methods for social media data analysis can “reveal” effects where there should be none. This raises questions about how meaningful and informative results obtained by applying current social science methods to social media data really are.</p>
<p>As researchers continue to analyse social media data and identify factors that shape the evolution of public opinion, hijack our attention, or otherwise explain our behaviour, we should think critically about the methods underlying such findings and reconsider what we can learn from them.</p>
<h2>What is a ‘meaningful’ finding?</h2>
<p>The issues raised in our paper are not new, and there are indeed many research practices that have been developed to ensure results are meaningful and robust. </p>
<p>For example, researchers are encouraged to pre-register their hypotheses and analysis plans before starting a study to prevent a kind of data cherry-picking called <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/were-all-p-hacking-now/">“p-hacking”</a>. Another helpful practice is to check whether results are stable after removing outliers and controlling for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691616658637">covariates</a>. Also important are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010945215000155?via%3Dihub">replication studies</a>, which assess whether the results obtained in an experiment can be found again when the experiment is repeated under similar conditions.</p>
<p>These practices are important, but they alone are not sufficient to deal with the problem we identify. While developing standardised research practices is needed, the research community must first think critically about what makes a finding in social media data meaningful.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/predicting-research-results-can-mean-better-science-and-better-advice-125568">Predicting research results can mean better science and better advice</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163000/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ulrike Hahn has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, NESTA, The Australian Research Council, IARPA, the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the European Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Burton and Nicole Cruz do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Researchers found the letters X, Y, and Z make tweets more shareable. The nonsensical result shows how easily statistics can be misused.Jason Burton, PhD researcher, Birkbeck, University of LondonNicole Cruz, Postdoctoral Research Associate, UNSW SydneyUlrike Hahn, Professor of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1255682019-10-24T19:00:48Z2019-10-24T19:00:48ZPredicting research results can mean better science and better advice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298477/original/file-20191024-31500-7c7lpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C0%2C5635%2C3753&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Putting scientific results under the microscope before they are even collected could help improve science as a whole.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Konstantin Kolosov/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We ask experts for advice all the time. A company might ask an economist for advice on how to motivate its employees. A government might ask what the effect of a policy reform will be.</p>
<p>To give the advice, experts often would like to draw on the results of an experiment. But they don’t always have relevant experimental evidence.</p>
<p>Collecting expert predictions about research results could be a powerful new tool to help improve science - and the advice scientists give.</p>
<h2>Better science</h2>
<p>In the past few decades, academic rigour and transparency, particularly in the social sciences, have greatly improved. </p>
<p>Yet, as Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-is-a-problem-australias-top-scientist-alan-finkel-pushes-to-eradicate-bad-science-123374">recently argued</a>, there is still much to be done to minimise “bad science”. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-is-a-problem-australias-top-scientist-alan-finkel-pushes-to-eradicate-bad-science-123374">'There is a problem': Australia's top scientist Alan Finkel pushes to eradicate bad science</a>
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<p>He recommends changes to the way research is measured and funded. Another increasingly <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/more-and-more-scientists-are-preregistering-their-studies-should-you">common approach</a> is to conduct randomised controlled trials and pre-register studies to avoid bias in which results are reported.</p>
<p>Expert predictions can be yet another tool for making research stronger, as my co-authors Stefano DellaVigna, Devin Pope and I argue in a new article published in <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6464/428">Science</a>.</p>
<h2>Why predictions?</h2>
<p>The way we interpret research results depends on what we already believe. For example, if we saw a study claiming to show that smoking was healthy, we would probably be pretty sceptical.</p>
<p>If a result surprises experts, that fact itself is informative. It could suggest that something may have been wrong with the study design. </p>
<p>Or, if the study was well-designed and the finding replicated, we might think that result fundamentally changed our understanding of how the world works.</p>
<p>Yet currently researchers rarely collect information that would allow them to compare their results with what the research community believed beforehand. This makes it hard to interpret the novelty and importance of a result.</p>
<p>The academic publication process is also plagued by bias against publishing insignificant, or “null”, results. </p>
<p>The collection of advance forecasts of research results could combat this bias by making null results more interesting, as they may indicate a departure from accepted wisdom.</p>
<h2>Changing minds</h2>
<p>As well as directly improving the interpretation of research results, collecting advance forecasts can help us understand how people change their minds.</p>
<p>For example, my colleague Aidan Coville and I <a href="http://evavivalt.com/wp-content/uploads/How-Do-Policymakers-Update1.pdf">collected advance forecasts from policymakers</a> to study what effect academic research results had on their beliefs. We found in general they were more receptive to “good news” than “bad news” and ignored uncertainties in results. </p>
<p>Forecasts can also inform us as to which potential studies could most improve policy decisions.</p>
<p>For example, suppose a research team has to pick one of ten interventions to study. For some of the interventions, we are pretty sure what a study would find, and a new study would be unlikely to change our minds. For others, we are less sure, but they are unlikely to be the best intervention.</p>
<p>If predictions were collected in advance, they could tell us which intervention to study to have the biggest policy impact.</p>
<h2>Testing forecasts</h2>
<p>In the long run, if expert forecasts can be shown to be fairly accurate,
they could provide some support for policy decisions where rigorous studies can’t be conducted.</p>
<p>For example, Stefano DellaVigna and Devin Pope <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/699976?mobileUi=0&">collected forecasts</a> about how different incentives change the amount of effort people put into completing a task.</p>
<p>As you can see in the graph below, the forecasts were not perfect (a dot on the dashed diagonal line would represent a perfect match of forecast and result). But there does appear to be some correlation between the aggregated forecasts and the results.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298204/original/file-20191022-55674-1kr6ucb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298204/original/file-20191022-55674-1kr6ucb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298204/original/file-20191022-55674-1kr6ucb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298204/original/file-20191022-55674-1kr6ucb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298204/original/file-20191022-55674-1kr6ucb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298204/original/file-20191022-55674-1kr6ucb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298204/original/file-20191022-55674-1kr6ucb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298204/original/file-20191022-55674-1kr6ucb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reproduced with permission from DellaVigna and Pope.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A central place for forecasts</h2>
<p>To make the most of forecasts of research results, they should be collected systematically. </p>
<p>Over time, this would help us assess how accurate individual forecasters are, teach us how best to aggregate forecasts, and tell us which types of results tend to be well predicted. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/science-is-best-when-the-data-is-an-open-book-49147">Science is best when the data is an open book</a>
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<p>We built a platform that researchers can use to collect forecasts about their experiments from researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and other important audiences. The beta website can be viewed <a href="http://socialscienceprediction.org/">here</a>. </p>
<p>While we are focusing first on our own discipline – economics – we think such a tool should be broadly useful. We would encourage researchers in any academic field to consider collecting predictions of research results.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298205/original/file-20191022-55665-xrz1q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298205/original/file-20191022-55665-xrz1q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298205/original/file-20191022-55665-xrz1q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298205/original/file-20191022-55665-xrz1q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298205/original/file-20191022-55665-xrz1q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298205/original/file-20191022-55665-xrz1q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298205/original/file-20191022-55665-xrz1q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298205/original/file-20191022-55665-xrz1q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Social Science Prediction Platform, https://socialscienceprediction.org/.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are many potential uses for predictions of research results beyond those described here. Many other academics are also exploring this area, such as the <a href="https://www.replicationmarkets.com/">Replication Markets</a> and <a href="https://replicats.research.unimelb.edu.au/">repliCATS</a> projects that are part of a large <a href="https://www.darpa.mil/program/systematizing-confidence-in-open-research-and-evidence">research initiative</a> on replication. </p>
<p>The multiple possible uses of research forecasts gives us confidence that a more rigorous and systematic treatment of prior beliefs can greatly improve the interpretation of research results and ultimately improve the way we do science.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eva Vivalt receives funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the John Mitchell Economics of Poverty Lab. </span></em></p>Researchers rarely collect information that lets them to compare their results with what was believed beforehand. If they did, it could help spot new or important findings more readily.Eva Vivalt, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1250482019-10-10T21:06:43Z2019-10-10T21:06:43ZShould I eat red meat? Confusing studies diminish trust in nutrition science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296315/original/file-20191009-3860-fojv6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C83%2C3362%2C2124&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new study still finds that reducing unprocessed red meat consumption by three servings in a week is associated with an an approximately eight per cent lower lifetime risk of heart disease, cancer and early death. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Another diet study, another controversy and the public is left wondering what to make of it. This time it’s a <a href="http://www.dssimon.com/MM/ACP-red-meat/">series of studies in the <em>Annals of Internal Medicine</em> </a> by an international group of researchers concluding people need not reduce their consumption of red and processed meat.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, study after study has indicated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwt261">eating red and processed meat</a> is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l2110">bad for your health</a> to the point where the <a href="https://www.who.int/features/qa/cancer-red-meat/en/">World Health Organization lists red meat as a probable carcinogen and processed meat as a carcinogen</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/361970730" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers explain the process and findings of their work examining the impact of eating meat.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This new study doesn’t dispute the finding of a possible increased risk for heart disease, cancer and early death from eating meat. However, the panel of international nutritional scientists concluded the risk was so small and the studies of too poor quality to justify any recommendation. </p>
<h2>So what does the new research actually say?</h2>
<p>The authors conducted a study of studies. This is done when findings of one or two pieces of research may not be definitive. Or the effect of something is so small you need to pool smaller studies into a larger one. From this, the authors found reducing unprocessed red meat consumption by three servings in a week was associated with an approximately eight per cent lower lifetime risk of heart disease, cancer and early death. </p>
<p>These findings are similar to many studies before it and aren’t surprising. However, this is a much smaller change in improved health than would be achieved by stopping smoking, eliminating hypertension or starting physical activity. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-we-still-need-to-cut-down-on-red-and-processed-meat-124486">Yes, we still need to cut down on red and processed meat</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Where the authors differed from previous studies was in how they assessed both the research and the benefit of reducing meat consumption to make their recommendations. They used a standard practice in medicine to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2335261/">grade the quality of the studies</a> and found them to be poor. In addition, they interpreted the benefit of unprocessed red meat reduction (approximately eight per cent lower lifetime risk) to be small. They collectively recommended against the need for people to reduce meat consumption.</p>
<p>This sent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/sep/30/research-red-meat-poses-no-health-risk">nutrition and public health scientists into an uproar</a>, calling the study <a href="https://www.truehealthinitiative.org/news2019/true-health-initiative-respectfully-disagrees/">highly irresponsible</a> to public health and citing <a href="https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20190930/controversial-studies-say-its-ok-to-eat-red-meat">grave concerns</a>.</p>
<h2>Studies identify association, not causation</h2>
<p>Nutritional science is messy. Most of our guidelines are based on observational studies in which scientists ask people what, and how much, they have eaten in a given time period (usually the previous year), and then follow them for years to see how many people get a disease or die.</p>
<p>A lot of times, diet is assessed only once, but we know people’s diets change over time. More robust studies ask people to report their diet multiple times. This can take into account changes. However, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.54.8.611">self-reported dietary data is known to be poor</a>. People may know what they ate, but have trouble knowing how much and even how it was prepared. All of which can affect the nutritional value of a food.</p>
<p>These studies also only identify associations, and not causation. This doesn’t mean causation isn’t possible, just the design of the study cannot show it. Usually, if a number of observational studies show similar results, our confidence of a causal effect increases. But in the end, this is still weak evidence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296317/original/file-20191009-3867-14dbe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296317/original/file-20191009-3867-14dbe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296317/original/file-20191009-3867-14dbe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296317/original/file-20191009-3867-14dbe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296317/original/file-20191009-3867-14dbe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296317/original/file-20191009-3867-14dbe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296317/original/file-20191009-3867-14dbe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Processed meats are classified as a Class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sticking with diets is challenging</h2>
<p>The gold standard in medical science is the randomized controlled trial in which people are assigned by chance to various different groups, the most familiar being a new drug compared to placebo. Some say we shouldn’t use the same standard in nutrition because it’s hard to do. Sticking to diets is extremely challenging, which makes it hard to conduct a study long enough to see an effect on disease, not to mention the costs involved in doing so.</p>
<p>In addition, nutrition is complex. It’s not like smoking, where the goal is to not smoke at all. We need to eat to live. Therefore when we stop eating one thing, we likely replace it with another. What food we choose as the replacement can be just as important to our overall health as what food was stopped.</p>
<p>There are numerous instances when observational studies have shown a protective effect of a nutrient only to be disproven in randomized trials. Vitamins C, D and E, folic acid and beta carotene supplements were all believed to prevent disease in observational studies. These claims went unproven in randomized studies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296318/original/file-20191009-3935-107nli5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296318/original/file-20191009-3935-107nli5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296318/original/file-20191009-3935-107nli5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296318/original/file-20191009-3935-107nli5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296318/original/file-20191009-3935-107nli5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296318/original/file-20191009-3935-107nli5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296318/original/file-20191009-3935-107nli5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carrots are a great source of beta carotene.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the case of beta carotene supplementation, for example, an <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199605023341802">increased risk for lung cancer</a> was found. By not holding nutrition sciences to the same bar as other medical sciences, we may be doing the public more harm than good.</p>
<h2>Weak evidence leads to bad guidelines</h2>
<p>From a public health perspective, a small individual change replicated throughout the population can lead to large changes at the societal level. This could result in changes in the average age of disease onset or death rates, which in turn could result in lower health-care costs. And for this reason, guidelines are needed, but if all we have is bad evidence, then we come up with bad guidelines.</p>
<p>Throughout the world, life expectancy has increased remarkably in recent centuries. While there are many reasons for this, advances in nutritional sciences are a key one. This knowledge has led to the elimination of nutritional deficiencies. Most people don’t worry too much about rickets, goiters or scurvy in North America these days. </p>
<p>In the future, however, additional research in nutrition is going to lead to less remarkable gains in quality and length of life, measured in days, not years.</p>
<p>While the war of words among scientists and public health officials continue, the real disservice is to the general public who look to us for leadership. Over time this ongoing inflamed rhetoric begins to turn into white noise, which gets ignored at best, and can diminish the trust in nutrition science. </p>
<p>One may wonder if we should stop nutritional research altogether until we can get it right.</p>
<p><em>Scott Lear writes the weekly blog <a href="https://drscottlear.com/">Feel Healthy with Dr. Scott Lear</a>.</em></p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Lear has received research funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Novo Nordisk, Hamilton Health Sciences and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.</span></em></p>New research claiming that people do not need to reduce their consumption of red and processed meat says more about the conduct and evaluation of research than it does about beef.Scott Lear, Professor of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1210962019-08-19T19:03:49Z2019-08-19T19:03:49ZHistorians’ archival research looks quite different in the digital age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288381/original/file-20190816-192262-1d2xs1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Today, and into the future, consulting archival documents increasingly means reading them on a screen. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our society’s historical record is undergoing a dramatic transformation.</p>
<p>Think of all the information that you create today that will be part of the record for tomorrow. <a href="https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx">More than half of the world’s population is online</a> and may be doing at least some of the following: communicating by email, sharing thoughts on Twitter or social media or publishing on the web. </p>
<p>Governments and institutions are no different. The American National Archives and Records Administration, responsible for American official records, “<a href="https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/leaders-share-national-archives-vision-for-a-digital-future">will no longer take records in paper form after December 31, 2022.</a>” </p>
<p>In Canada, under Library and Archives Canada’s <a href="https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/services/government-information-resources/guidelines/Pages/introduction.aspx">Digital by 2017</a> plan, records are now preserved in the format that they were created in: that means a Word document or email will be part of our historical record as a digital object.</p>
<p>Traditionally, exploring archives meant largely physically collecting, searching and reviewing paper records. Today, and into the future, consulting archival documents increasingly means reading them on a screen. </p>
<p>This brings with it opportunity — imagine being able to search for keywords across millions of documents, leading to radically faster search times — but also challenge, as the number of electronic documents increases exponentially. </p>
<p>As I’ve argued in my recent book <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/history-in-the-age-of-abundance--products-9780773556973.php"><em>History in the Age of Abundance</em></a>, digitized sources present extraordinary opportunities as well as daunting challenges for historians. Universities will need to incorporate new approaches to how they train historians, either through historical programs or newly-emerging interdisciplinary programs in the <a href="https://guides.library.duke.edu/digital_humanities">digital humanities</a>. </p>
<p>The ever-growing scale and scope of digital records suggests technical challenges: historians need new skills to plumb these for meaning, trends, voices and other currents, to piece together an understanding of what happened in the past.</p>
<p>There are also ethical challenges, which, although not new in the field of history, now bear particular contemporary attention and scrutiny.</p>
<p>Historians have long relied on librarians and archivists to bring order to information. Part of their work has involved ethical choices about what to preserve, curate, catalogue and display and how to do so. Today, many digital sources are now at our fingertips — albeit in raw, often uncatalogued, format. Historians are entering uncharted territory.</p>
<h2>Digital abundance</h2>
<p>Traditionally, as the late, great American historian Roy Rosenzweig of George Mason University argued, historians operated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/108.3.735">in a scarcity-based economy: we wished we had more information about the past</a>.
Today, hundreds of billions of websites preserved at the <a href="https://archive.org/about/">Internet Archive</a> alone is more archival information than scholars have ever had access to. People who never before would have been included in archives are part of these collections. </p>
<p>Take web archiving, for example, which is the preservation of websites for future use. Since 2005, Library and Archives Canada’s <a href="http://webarchive.bac-lac.gc.ca/?lang=en">web archiving program</a> has collected over <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Historical-Web-and-Digital-Humanities-The-Case-of-National-Web-Domains/Brugger-Laursen/p/book/9781138294318">36 terabytes of information</a> with over <a href="https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/about-us/annual-reports/annual-report-2017-2018/Pages/annual-report-2017-2018.aspx">800 million items</a>. </p>
<p>Even historians who study the middle ages or the 19th centuries are being affected by this dramatic transformation. They’re now frequently consulting records that began life as traditional parchment or paper, but were subsequently digitized. </p>
<h2>Historians’ digital literacy</h2>
<p>Our research team at the University of Waterloo and York University, <a href="https://archivesunleashed.org">collaborating on the Archives Unleashed Project</a>, uses sources like the GeoCities.com web archive. This is a collection of websites published by users between 1994 and 2009. We have some 186 million web pages to use, created by seven million users.</p>
<p>Our traditional approaches for examining historical sources simply won’t work on the scale of hundreds of millions of documents created by one website alone. We can’t read page by page nor can we simply count keywords or outsource our intellectual labour to a search engine like Google. </p>
<p>As historians examining these archives, we need a fundamental understanding of how records were produced, preserved and accessed. Such questions and modes of analysis are continuous with historians’ traditional training: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24048">Why were these records created</a>? Who created or preserved them? And, what <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1461444811414834"><em>wasn’t</em> preserved</a>? </p>
<p>Second, historians who confront such voluminous data need to develop more contemporary skills to process it. Such skills can range from knowing how to take images of documents and make them searchable using <a href="http://doi.org/10.3138/chr.694">Optical Character Recognition</a>, to the ability to not only count how often given terms appear, but also what contexts they appear in and how concepts begin to appear alongside other concepts. </p>
<p>You might be interested in finding the “Johnson” in “Boris Johnson,” but not the “Johnson & Johnson Company.” Just searching for “Johnson” is going to get a lot of misleading results: keyword searching won’t get you there. Yet emergent research in the field of <a href="http://www.nltk.org/">natural language processing</a> might!</p>
<p>Historians need to develop basic algorithmic and data fluency. They don’t need to be programmers, but they do need to think about how code and data operates, how digital objects are stored and created and humans’ role at all stages.</p>
<h2>Deep fake vs. history</h2>
<p>As historical work is increasingly defined by digital records, historians can contribute to critical conversations around the role of algorithms and truth in the digital age. While both tech companies and some scholars have advanced the idea that technology and the internet will strengthen democratic participation, historical research can help uncover the <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/programmed-inequality">impact of socio-economic power throughout communications and media history</a>. Historians can also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/11/what-naomi-wolf-cokie-roberts-teach-us-about-need-historians/">help amateurs parse the sea of historical information and sources now on the Web</a>. </p>
<p>One of the defining skills of a historian is an understanding of historical context. Historians instinctively read documents, whether they are newspaper columns, government reports or tweets, and contextualise them in terms of not only who wrote them, but their environment, culture and time period. </p>
<p>As societies lose their physical paper trails and increasingly rely on digital information, historians, and their grasp of context, will become more important than ever. </p>
<p>As deepfakes — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1365712718807226">products of artificial intelligence that can alter images or video clips</a> — <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/bill-hader-tom-cruise-seth-rogen-deepfake-871154/">increase in popularity online</a>, both our media environment and our historical record will increasingly be full of misinformation. </p>
<p>Western societies’ traditional archives — such as those held by <a href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx">Library and Archives Canada</a> or the <a href="https://www.archives.gov">National Archives and Records Administration</a> — contain (and have always contained) misinformation, misrepresentation and biased worldviews, among other flaws. </p>
<p>Historians are specialists in critically reading documents and then seeking to confirm them. They synthesise their findings with a <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/the-landscape-of-history-9780195171570">broad array of additional sources and voices</a>. Historians tie together <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-manifesto/big-questions-big-data/F60D7E21EFBD018F5410FB315FBA4590/core-reader">big pictures and findings</a>, which <a href="https://www.macmillanihe.com/page/detail/Why-History-Matters/?K=9781137604071">helps us understand today’s world</a>.</p>
<p>The work of a historian might look a lot different in the 21st century — exploring databases, parsing data — but the application of their fundamental skills of seeking context and accumulating knowledge will serve both society and them well in the digital age.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Milligan receives funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, the United States Institute of Museum and Library Services, Compute Canada, and the University of Waterloo.</span></em></p>As our societies lose paper trails and increasingly rely on digital information, historians, and their grasps of context, will become more important than ever.Ian Milligan, Associate Professor of History, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1208742019-08-12T15:55:49Z2019-08-12T15:55:49ZThere is no great salt debate: we should be consuming less<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286631/original/file-20190801-169676-pixm2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/137498780?src=x-3-Wph74q15pFufC0HMQA-1-77&studio=1&size=medium_jpg">Jiri Hera/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The human body needs a tiny amount of sodium to <a href="https://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/guidelines/sodium_intake/en/">function properly</a> and this is typically found in salt (sodium chloride). But today most people consume way too much salt, increasing the burden of cardiovascular disease around the world. </p>
<p>Health professionals have been trying to tackle this problem for decades, but face several barriers, including <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673616304676?via%3Dihub">research</a> that muddies the water about what safe levels of salt intake are. This has cast unnecessary doubt on the importance of reducing intakes. But our <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.13117">latest research</a> has found flaws in these studies and suggests that salt intake should be reduced even further than current recommendations.</p>
<p>The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that people consume less than 5g of salt a day, but <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/12/e003733">global intakes average 10g a day</a>. Excess salt consumption raises blood pressure, which <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41569-018-0004-1?platform=hootsuite">increases the risk of heart attacks, heart failure and stroke</a>. </p>
<p>Many studies show a <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.13117">linear</a> <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.006032?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed">relationship</a> between salt intake and cardiovascular disease: as salt intake increases, the risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death increases. But other studies suggest that the relationship between salt consumption and disease is not linear. They posit that consuming both less than 7.5g and more than 12.5g of salt per day could lead to an <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ajh/article/27/9/1129/2730186">increased risk</a> of cardiovascular disease and early death. But there are flaws in the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1470320318810015">methods used in these studies</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286632/original/file-20190801-169702-1cdfobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286632/original/file-20190801-169702-1cdfobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286632/original/file-20190801-169702-1cdfobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286632/original/file-20190801-169702-1cdfobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286632/original/file-20190801-169702-1cdfobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286632/original/file-20190801-169702-1cdfobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286632/original/file-20190801-169702-1cdfobu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">High blood pressure raises the risk of heart disease and stroke.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/369919787?src=tHVnLsoWi53rahTSBzhczw-1-5&studio=1&size=medium_jpg">Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cheaper but less accurate</h2>
<p>We excrete most of the salt we consume in our urine (90%). And there is a large variation in the amount of salt we consume each day, so the gold standard for measuring salt intakes is to collect urine over at least three non-consecutive 24-hour periods. Although this is the most accurate way of measuring salt intake, it is also the most expensive and is more work for both the participant and the researcher. </p>
<p>Some studies have estimated salt intake using spot urine measurements rather than 24-hour urine collection because it is easier to do, cheaper and less hassle for the participants. Participants only have to provide one small urine sample from which daily salt intake is then calculated. </p>
<p>The studies that suggest that the relationship between salt intake and cardiovascular disease is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673616304676?via%3Dihub">not linear</a>, used data from spot urine measurements. This way of measuring, however, is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4245554/">not accurate</a> as it represents salt intake from a very short period of time and is also affected by the amount of fluid the participant drank and the time of day the sample was taken. Estimates from spot urine measurements are therefore unreliable reflections of habitual daily salt intake.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.13117">found</a> that calculating salt intakes from spot urine samples can alter the linear relationship seen between salt intake and mortality. We analysed data from <a href="https://biolincc.nhlbi.nih.gov/studies/tohp/">Trials of Hypertension Prevention</a>, which used the gold standard method for assessing salt intake (several 24-hour urine measurements) in nearly 3,000 adults with prehypertension (high normal blood pressure) over periods ranging from 18 months to four years.</p>
<p>When we analysed the data, we found a direct linear relationship between salt intake and the risk of death down to a salt intake level of 3g a day. </p>
<p>To mimic spot urine sampling, we then applied the formulas developed for these samples on the sodium concentration of the 24-hour urine samples. The results showed the same non-linear relationship that were reported in the controversial studies. This implies that their findings could be explained by the method they used to estimate salt intake, as spot urine measurements are unreliable reflections of habitual daily salt intake and it also appears that the formulas themselves are problematic. </p>
<p>So the message remains clear: salt reduction saves lives, and the findings from studies that use a less reliable assessment of salt intake should not be used to derail critical public health policy or divert action. </p>
<p>A gradual reduction in salt intake across the whole population, as recommended by <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/salt-reduction">WHO</a>, remains an achievable, affordable, effective and important strategy to prevent cardiovascular diseases and premature death worldwide. Even a small reduction in salt intake will have an enormous benefit on people’s health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Feng He is a member of Consensus Action on Salt, Sugar and Health (CASSH) and World Action on Salt & Health (WASH). Both CASSH and WASH are nonprofit charitable organisations, and Feng does not receive any financial support from CASSH or WASH.
Feng has received funding from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) using Official Development Assistance funding (16/136/77). </span></em></p>Recommended salt intake levels should be lowered further, despite previous contradictory research.Feng He, Professor of Global Health Research, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1149882019-04-22T20:23:59Z2019-04-22T20:23:59ZYou look but do not find: why the absence of evidence can be a useful thing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269736/original/file-20190417-139120-14habdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=186%2C0%2C4966%2C3264&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What you find depends on what you're looking for.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ray Bond/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine you’re looking for your keys and you think you might have left them on the bookshelf. But when you look, you see nothing but books. A natural conclusion to draw is that the keys are not there.</p>
<p>Now imagine you’re an early 20th century astrophysicist seeking to test the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Urbain-Jean-Joseph-Le-Verrier">hypothesis</a> that there is a planet (Vulcan) causing perturbations in Mercury’s orbit. You keep looking but find nothing. You conclude that Vulcan does not exist.</p>
<p>Both arguments seem straightforward, and yet in both cases you are relying on an assumption that an absence of evidence can be a good reason for inferring that what you are looking for is just not there. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sorry-mr-spock-science-and-emotion-are-not-only-compatible-theyre-inseparable-94034">Sorry Mr Spock: science and emotion are not only compatible, they're inseparable</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In other words, an absence of evidence is evidence of absence.</p>
<p>But it’s the opposite assumption — that an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence — that has come to have the status of a received truth.</p>
<h2>Of gods and aliens</h2>
<p>Consider the recent pronouncement by the 2019 <a href="http://www.templetonprize.org">Templeton Prize</a> winner, the US-based physicist <a href="https://marcelogleiser.com/">Marcelo Gleiser</a>, that <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atheism-is-inconsistent-with-the-scientific-method-prizewinning-physicist-says/">atheism is inconsistent with the scientific method</a>. </p>
<p>Endeavouring perhaps to put a catechism among the dogmatists, Gleiser reasons that atheists are unscientific precisely because they assume that an absence of evidence (of God’s existence) is evidence of an absence (of God).</p>
<p>That, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atheism-is-inconsistent-with-the-scientific-method-prizewinning-physicist-says/">he asserts</a>, is contrary to the scientific method. Absence of evidence is not evidence of an absence and science abhors a dogmatist.</p>
<p>Gleiser is in interesting company. British astrophysicist Martin Rees, in his 2011 book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13616993-from-here-to-infinity">From Here to Infinity: Scientific Horizons</a>, used the slogan to suggest the possibility of an undiscovered, super-intelligent animal species on Earth and extraterrestrial intelligence elsewhere in the universe. <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?redir_esc=y&id=1C0ckgAACAAJ&q=%22absence+of+evidence%22">He wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There may be a lot more out there than we could ever detect. Absence of evidence wouldn’t be evidence of absence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rees was the <a href="http://www.templetonprize.org/previouswinner.html#rees">2011 Templeton prize winner</a> and past president of the <a href="https://royalsociety.org/">Royal Society</a>, the oldest, independent academy of science whose luminaries include Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.</p>
<h2>Communist connections?</h2>
<p>During the Cold War, US Senator Joseph McCarthy reportedly justified naming someone as a communist, despite a complete lack of evidence, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=h04T6e77NsMC&lpg=PA132&vq=%22nothing%20in%20the%20files%20to%20disprove%20his%20Communist%20connections%22&pg=PA132#v=snippet&q=%22nothing%20in%20the%20files%20to%20disprove%20his%20Communist%20connections%22&f=false">on the grounds that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I do not have much information on this except the general statement of the agency [unidentified] that there is nothing in the files to disprove his Communist connections.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269906/original/file-20190418-139104-1pqtzjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269906/original/file-20190418-139104-1pqtzjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269906/original/file-20190418-139104-1pqtzjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269906/original/file-20190418-139104-1pqtzjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269906/original/file-20190418-139104-1pqtzjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269906/original/file-20190418-139104-1pqtzjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269906/original/file-20190418-139104-1pqtzjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269906/original/file-20190418-139104-1pqtzjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld receiving the Defender of the Constitution Award in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5446795136/">Flickr/Gage Skidmore</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At a NATO press conference in 2002, the then <a href="https://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2002/s020606g.htm">US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared</a> the war in Iraq justified on the grounds that although there was no evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn’t exist. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A hidden God? Extraterrestrials? Communists? WMDs? If this is where the slogan “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” leads, why would anyone find it compelling?</p>
<p>The slogan sounds like a cautionary tale – a healthy dose of scepticism to ward off the pox of hasty inferences drawn from a paucity of evidence. But trouble brews when cautionary tales get deployed as indisputable methodological principles.</p>
<h2>Do fish feel pain?</h2>
<p>Consider, for example, how the slogan is used against the following (abbreviated) absence of evidence argument:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Animals that feel pain possess the neural circuitry enabling them to execute the neural computations that lead to pain. There is no evidence that fish possess such circuitry. Hence, fish don’t feel pain.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Evidence purported to support the argument that fish feel pain has been <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10539-014-9469-4" title="Fish do not feel pain and its implications for understanding phenomenal consciousness">strongly</a> <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/faf.12010" title="Can fish really feel pain?">discredited</a> by neuroscientists but widely ignored primarily because of <a href="https://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol1/iss3/28/" title="Anthropomorphic denial of fish pain">the false belief that</a> “incompleteness of current knowledge certainly does not constitute evidence for inferring that fish in particular do not feel pain”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269907/original/file-20190418-139120-1t7lw9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269907/original/file-20190418-139120-1t7lw9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269907/original/file-20190418-139120-1t7lw9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269907/original/file-20190418-139120-1t7lw9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269907/original/file-20190418-139120-1t7lw9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269907/original/file-20190418-139120-1t7lw9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269907/original/file-20190418-139120-1t7lw9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269907/original/file-20190418-139120-1t7lw9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hooked!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/143733090@N05/25527020868/">Flickr/matt dean</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But as far as science can tell, the <a href="https://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol1/iss3/1/" title="Why fish do not feel pain">hardware within the fish brain</a> is simply insufficient to perform the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6088194/" title="Designing Brains for Pain: Human to Mollusc">neural computations necessary</a> for a nervous system to be consciously aware of its own inner processes, that is, for it to feel pain.</p>
<p>That’s the best we can say (so far) and that’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/wheres-the-proof-in-science-there-is-none-30570">the way science works</a>. We have found no evidence that a fish can feel pain, so in this case, we should feel confident that an absence of evidence <em>is</em> evidence of absence.</p>
<h2>When finding nothing tells you something</h2>
<p>As with the keys and Vulcan arguments at the beginning, we are warranted to infer an absence from an absence of evidence in certain contexts.</p>
<p>What kinds of contexts are those? The kinds of contexts where we could reasonably expect to find evidence if our hypothesis were true, where our methodology is sound, and where we do not obtain positive results.</p>
<p>If the hypothesis that fish feel pain were true, we could reasonably expect to find evidence of something without which pain in vertebrates does not occur. But in the case of fish, we do not find this evidence.</p>
<p>Critics of the fish argument assume that by deploying the slogan an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, they have discharged the burden of proof. They insist that the proponent of the fish argument must positively rule out the possibility that in some unknown or yet-to-be-identified region of the fish brain produces pain. </p>
<p>This is not how the burden of proof works.</p>
<p>If you doubt that Iraq had WMDs (because there was no evidence it did), you do not have the burden of proving that you are right. Nor do you have the burden of disproving that super-intelligent terrestrials or extraterrestrials exist.</p>
<p>The burden rests with those who claim that such things are probable enough to be live options.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wheres-the-proof-in-science-there-is-none-30570">Where's the proof in science? There is none</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Similarly, if you accept that fish lack the capacity to feel pain, why not task the doubters to <a href="https://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol1/iss3/44/" title="Burden of proof lies with proposer of celestial teapot hypothesis">prove that fish feel pain</a>?</p>
<p>Ordinary hypothesis testing, revision and replacement – the very falsifiability of scientific hypotheses – depends on being able to assume that in certain contexts of inquiry an absence of evidence can serve as evidence of absence.</p>
<p>What science eschews is not a role for negative findings but the reliance on slogans of any stripe parading as received truths.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deborah Brown receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Key has received funding from NHMRC and ARC. </span></em></p>Some people argue the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, you just need to keep looking. But there are occasions where finding no evidence is all you can do.Deborah Brown, Professor in Philosophy, The University of QueenslandBrian Key, Professor and Head of Brain Growth and Regeneration Lab, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039902018-11-25T19:04:45Z2018-11-25T19:04:45ZUnscrambling the egg: how research works out what really leads to an increased disease risk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246776/original/file-20181122-161644-18l2a17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A study showed it's social circumstance, and not biology, that explains most of the differences in the occurrence of diabetes among racial and ethnic groups. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/auEe5lKHZCw">Omar Lopez/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the series <strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/this-is-research-61770">This is research</a></strong>, where we ask academics to share and discuss open access articles that reveal important aspects of science. Today’s piece looks at disease itself – and how scientists known as epidemiologists work out what factors are involved.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Science is only ever as good as the research that sits behind it. </p>
<p>That means the methods we use to conduct science must be robust, repeatable and suitable to the questions we want to ask. </p>
<p>When these questions become very complex – for instance, why are some groups of people more likely to get diabetes than others? – we need to ensure that the tools we use are capable of handling such complexity. </p>
<p>This is really important when it comes to teasing apart the impact of distinct but sometimes interrelated factors, like ethnic background and socioeconomic factors. We need accurate answers so we can design successful health programs. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-made-smart-egg-cartons-to-transport-cells-to-cure-diabetes-92920">We've made 'smart egg-cartons' to transport cells to cure diabetes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How do we know what truly increases disease risk?</h2>
<p>Some disease processes seem quite straightforward – bacteria like <em>Salmonella</em> can give you <a href="https://theconversation.com/salmonella-in-your-salad-the-cost-of-convenience-54325">food poisoning</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/hiv-677">HIV virus</a> can lead to AIDS if untreated. Conditions like sickle cell anaemia and cystic fibrosis are the result of a single genetic mutation. </p>
<p>However non-infectious diseases – think <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/400112">cancer</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/heart-disease-329">heart disease</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-causes-alzheimers-disease-what-we-know-dont-know-and-suspect-75847">Alzheimer’s</a> – are much more complex. In such cases, is a person’s risk for disease primarily determined by their genetics? Their cells? What about their organ systems? How about the role of social and cultural influences? What about their diet or other factors in their surroundings. And lastly what about their race or ethnicity? </p>
<p>Epidemiology – the science of understanding the patterns and causes of diseases in populations – aims to answer these questions. </p>
<p>A particular approach known as <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmm/learning/multilevel-models/what-why.html">multi-level modelling</a> can tease apart the roles of different risk factors – let’s look at <a href="http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/39/7/1208.long">type 2 diabetes as an example</a>. </p>
<h2>Type 2 diabetes</h2>
<p>Diabetes, particularly <a href="http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/39/6/878.long">type 2 diabetes</a>, has reached epidemic levels in most developed (and some developing) countries. </p>
<p><a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2434682">Many risk factors</a> for type 2 diabetes have been identified in the past 20 years alone. These include genetic, lifestyle and behavioural risk factors. There’s also an increasing recognition that cultural and environmental factors, including your ancestry, also influence your risk of disease. This is supported by evidence that type 2 diabetes occurs at <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/204871">different rates</a> among different ethnic and racial groups. </p>
<p>Multi-level modelling allows epidemiologists to study the influence of these factors at two or more levels (e.g. within an individual and at the neighbourhood level) to generate models that account for the influence of these factors alone, and in combination, to influence type 2 diabetes risk. </p>
<p>Multi-level modelling as a technique has its <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/32533875?selectedversion=NBD8665936">origins</a> in the behavioural and social sciences, but is now <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/104814856/multilevel-analysis-techniques-and-applications">successfully adapted</a> to suit the study of many phenomena, including complex human diseases.</p>
<h2>Race and ethnicity, or…</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/39/7/1208.long">this paper</a>, the authors wanted to work out how race and ethnic background might interact with other factors to increase type 2 diabetes risk. </p>
<p>The data was collected as part of the third wave of large, representative <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-tracking-people-moving-together-through-time-creates-powerful-data-103841">cohort study</a> from Boston – in total, 2,764 men and women were extensively examined.</p>
<p>The researchers pooled results into five possible groups of factors that influence type 2 diabetes: biological, socioeconomic, environmental, psychosocial and lifestyle/behavioural. </p>
<p>Then they performed analyses to work out how each of these factors were linked, both directly and indirectly, to the type 2 diabetes risk for people in different racial and ethnic groups. </p>
<p>The results showed, as expected, that diabetes was more prevalent in black and Hispanic study participants compared to white participants. But – counter to the prevailing view – this was only in small part due to biological and lifestyle/behavioural factors. Such factors were only found to account for a combined 15% and 10% of the total direct effect of black and Hispanic race on type 2 diabetes. </p>
<p>By contrast, approximately 22% and 26% of the total direct effect were the result of socio-economic factors alone – especially income, health literacy, and health care access. </p>
<p>This suggests it’s social circumstance, and not biology, that explains most of the differences in the occurrence of diabetes among racial and ethnic groups. </p>
<p>This multilevel modelling study design allowed the researchers to unravel very complex, interwoven factors that contribute to type 2 diabetes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-curious-case-of-the-missing-workplace-teaspoons-103989">The curious case of the missing workplace teaspoons</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>No model is perfect</h2>
<p>Almost no epidemiological model can perfectly predict the occurrence and causes of a disease process. And multilevel modelling is not without its limitations. </p>
<p>In this instance, the groupings of factors used in this modelling process are often defined by researchers, and may not precisely reflect their occurrence in the real world. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, in an era of <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1806634?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed">precision public health</a>, and where funding for expensive population interventions and targeted treatments is under intense pressure, approaches such as this are promising. </p>
<p>The right research techniques may provide ways to optimise strategies to tackle the growing inequality that is already apparent in many diseases.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The open access research paper for this analysis is <a href="http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/39/7/1208.long">Relative Contributions of Socioeconomic, Local Environmental, Psychosocial, Lifestyle/Behavioral, Biophysiological, and Ancestral Factors to Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Type 2 Diabetes</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Sean Martin is a NHMRC Early Career Research fellow, currently based in Boston as a Fulbright Scholar.</span></em></p>What contributes most to being at high risk of diabetes – diet, genes or something else? Big research questions need robust research approaches, so let’s break it down.Sean Martin, NHMRC ECR Fellow, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039072018-11-12T04:11:52Z2018-11-12T04:11:52ZWhen the numbers aren’t enough: how different data work together in research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243411/original/file-20181101-173887-1n5l5sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The flu virus changes over time – which is why you need a different flu shot each year. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sick-woman-caught-cold-flu-sneezing-553555162?src=vL24PEhKVAnQlxaeUgh1tw-1-13">from www.shutterstock.com </a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/this-is-research-61770">This is research</a>, where we ask academics to share and discuss open access articles that reveal important aspects of science. Today’s piece looks at how types of data – quantitative and qualitative – are useful in different ways.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>As an epidemiologist, I am interested in disease – and more specifically, who in a population currently has or might get that disease. </p>
<p>What is their age, sex, or socioeconomic status? Where do they live? What can people do to limit their chances of getting sick? </p>
<p>Questions exploring whether something is likely to happen or not can be answered with <a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/introduction-to-quantitative-research-methods/book210544">quantitative research</a>. By counting and measuring, we quantify (measure) a phenomenon in our world, and present the results through percentages and averages. We use statistics to help interpret the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-it-means-when-scientists-say-their-results-are-significant-103329">significance</a> of the results.</p>
<p>While this approach is very important, it can’t tell us everything about a disease and peoples’ experiences of it. That’s where <a href="http://methods.sagepub.com/Reference/sage-encyc-qualitative-research-methods">qualitative data</a> becomes important. </p>
<p>Let’s take the viral disease influenza (flu) as an example. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aussie-flu-we-cant-be-sure-where-flu-originates-and-that-doesnt-really-matter-anyway-89960">'Aussie flu'? We can't be sure where flu originates, and that doesn't really matter anyway</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How many people had flu</h2>
<p>Quantitative methods tell me that over the period 2001 to 2014, Influenza B strain was responsible for an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/irv.12432">average of 17% of the notified cases</a> of the flu in Australia each year, with most remaining cases caused by influenza A virus. </p>
<p>Delve even deeper, and we see variation in incidence from year to year. For example, in 2010, influenza B strain caused 9.6% of the notified influenza cases, while in 2013 it caused 36.9% of the cases.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243415/original/file-20181101-173908-villmo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243415/original/file-20181101-173908-villmo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243415/original/file-20181101-173908-villmo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243415/original/file-20181101-173908-villmo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243415/original/file-20181101-173908-villmo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243415/original/file-20181101-173908-villmo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243415/original/file-20181101-173908-villmo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The number of people diagnosed with influenza types A and B varies from year to year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/irv.12432">Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These two virus strains – influenza A and B – are responsible for our seasonal flu each year, and circulate together in the community at varying levels over the seasons and by geography. </p>
<p>Each year the strains of influenza A and B change through evolution. So vaccinations need to be developed and administered every year to account for this. </p>
<p>Due to the rapid evolution of flu viruses, it makes sense for researchers to monitor influenza, so that steps can be taken to improve vaccines and reduce the number of people that get sick each year.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-whats-new-about-the-2018-flu-vaccines-and-who-should-get-one-94514">Explainer: what's new about the 2018 flu vaccines, and who should get one?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But that is not the whole picture.</p>
<p>Sometimes researchers want to know more than numbers. Sometimes it’s important to understand more complex issues in health care. Questions such as: how do people make decisions about their health, including risk of flu? What information do they use? Where do they find this information? </p>
<p>The answers to these questions are complicated. People apply reasoning to decisions based on many factors that are influenced by our social, cultural and political backgrounds. </p>
<h2>The bigger story</h2>
<p>Understanding and fitting the numbers into a bigger story is what <a href="http://methods.sagepub.com/Reference/sage-encyc-qualitative-research-methods">qualitative research</a> aims to achieve.</p>
<p>Qualitative methods include a range of techniques – but interviews are one of the most common ways of gathering this sort of data. </p>
<p>Semi-structured interviews use a set of questions to guide the interview. This allows flexibility to explore ideas that arise during the conversation. </p>
<p>An audio-recording of the interview is transcribed and used for analysis, which is typically completed by at least two researchers independently to ensure they both come to the same conclusions. </p>
<p>Here’s another example from flu research that tells the story. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323155120_Much_ado_about_flu_A_mixed_methods_study_of_parental_perceptions_trust_and_information_seeking_in_a_pandemic">report published earlier this year</a>, Australian researchers investigated how parents sought information during the <a href="http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/about_disease/en/">2009 pandemic</a> of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-we-learnt-from-the-2009-swine-flu-pandemic-948">swine flu</a>.</p>
<p>By completing mixed methods research – research that includes both quantitative and qualitative research methods – the researchers were able to gain a deeper understanding of their topic.</p>
<h2>Mixed methods research</h2>
<p>Applying a quantitative research method known as a cross-sectional cohort study, the researchers surveyed 431 parents recruited from childcare centres. They report that 90% of parents trusted the information that their doctor gave them about the influenza pandemic. Nurses (59%) and government (56%) were also trusted sources of information.</p>
<p>Only 7% of parents trusted information published about the pandemic in the media, and even less parents trusted information published by anti-vaccination groups (6%) and celebrities (1%). </p>
<hr>
<h3>Ranked list of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323155120_Much_ado_about_flu_A_mixed_methods_study_of_parental_perceptions_trust_and_information_seeking_in_a_pandemic">who parents trust</a> for swine flu information:</h3>
<ol>
<li>doctor</li>
<li>nurse </li>
<li>government</li>
<li>childcare centre </li>
<li>family/friends</li>
<li>natural therapist</li>
<li>media</li>
<li>anti-vaccination group</li>
<li>celebrity. </li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>However, these numbers don’t tell us anything about why they did or did not trust these sources of information.</p>
<p>Here is where the qualitative research helps: a group of 42 parents were interviewed to ask more detailed questions. </p>
<p>Their responses revealed that even though parents trusted their GP as a source of information, they would go to their hospital’s emergency department for medical care during the pandemic.</p>
<p>Parents found that the way the media reported the pandemic generated fear among the community, which was not consistent with the mildness of the pandemic.</p>
<p>Finally, parents said they used the internet to supplement the information given by their doctors, nurses, and childcare centres; a finding missed in the quantitative study.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-tracking-people-moving-together-through-time-creates-powerful-data-103841">How tracking people moving together through time creates powerful data</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The full picture</h2>
<p>Clearly, the information gathered during the qualitative research expanded and gave meaning to the numerical data gathered from the survey. </p>
<p>From the qualitative research we gained a greater understanding of where parents get information about influenza during an outbreak. This is vital information that can help health care workers ensure that parents have the information they want and need.</p>
<p>Traditionally there has been a tension between quantitative and qualitative researchers, with researchers on both sides arguing that their methods are superior to answer complex questions. </p>
<p>However, this tension misses the point that research questions of significant interest almost always can be answered better with the combination of methods.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-it-means-when-scientists-say-their-results-are-significant-103329">What it means when scientists say their results are 'significant'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The open access research papers for this analysis are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5304570/pdf/IRV-11-102.pdf">Epidemiology of influenza B in Australia: 2001-2014 influenza seasons</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323155120_Much_ado_about_flu_A_mixed_methods_study_of_parental_perceptions_trust_and_information_seeking_in_a_pandemic/fulltext/5a83910ca6fdcc6f3eb29130/323155120_Much_ado_about_flu_A_mixed_methods_study_of_parental_perceptions_trust_and_information_seeking_in_a_pandemic.pdf?origin=publication_detail">Much ado about flu: A mixed methods study of parental perceptions, trust and information seeking in a pandemic</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Stephens does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Important research questions can almost always be answered better with a combination of methods – where both quantitive and qualitative data play a role.Jacqueline Stephens, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/871662017-11-19T22:21:22Z2017-11-19T22:21:22ZIf ‘indigenizing’ education feels this good, we aren’t doing it right<p>“Always indigenize!” was the rallying cry of <a href="http://smarokamboureli.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/LenFindlay-AlwaysIndigenize.pdf">an article written by Canadian academic Len Findlay</a> nearly 20 years ago. It was seen by many at the time as a radical but unassailably positive step forward — a way to make universities more just and more diverse.</p>
<p>This effort to indigenize universities continues to be supported by many well-meaning administrators and scholars. Following the release of the <a href="http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=890">Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report</a>, this push to indigenize has gained a sense of urgency.</p>
<p>Just this month, the University of Calgary was the latest higher education institution to unveil its new Indigenous Strategy, <em><a href="https://www.ucalgary.ca/indigenous-strategy/">ii’ taa’ poh’ to’ p</a></em>. In September, the University of Saskatchewan hit the headlines when some professors questioned <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/indigenous-education-university-saskatchewan-1.4299551">a radical plan to indigenize the curriculum for 21,000 students</a>.</p>
<p>Part of the reason for this quick adoption is, I believe, because it feels good. Many Canadians want to do something about our shameful history and “fix” our colonial past to make Canada more just, more equitable.</p>
<h2>We’re doing it, we’re ‘indigenizing’</h2>
<p>At the end of October, I attended the Society for Ethnomusicology’s annual conference in Denver. The conference included a day-long symposium on Indigenous musics, and many roundtables and papers on indigeneity and decolonization. </p>
<p>My own research focuses on Métis cultural festivals as sites of resurgence. I have also written about settler appropriation of Métis music, and the ways in which acts of inclusion function to control and contain Métis music. As such, I was interested in how calls to indigenize were being met or otherwise addressed by scholars in my discipline.</p>
<p>As one of a small group of Canadian music scholars in attendance, I found the differences between Canada and the United States to be palpable: Canadians, unlike Americans, have made territorial acknowledgements common and even expected at public gatherings. Americans, I found, seemed more hesitant to embrace this practice. </p>
<p>Canadian educators are starting to <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-why-most-teachers-need-indigenous-coaches-82875">discuss and include Indigenous histories</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-i-am-learning-to-include-indigenous-knowledge-in-the-classroom-84345">methodologies and worldviews in their teaching practice</a>. And Canadian universities are trying to address the lack of Indigenous faculty members through open calls for applications from Indigenous scholars.</p>
<p>Seeing these differences, it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement and feel a sense of pride in our achievements as Canadians. We’re doing it. We’re “indigenizing.”</p>
<h2>Wait, isn’t this just good teaching?</h2>
<p>And we should feel proud — at least a little. These small initiatives are positive. We should be constantly reminding ourselves and others of whose lands we are occupying. We should be making sure Indigenous scholars are a valued part of universities, and that students see themselves in their instructors. We should be teaching Indigenous histories. We should be valuing Indigenous worldviews. </p>
<p>We should make sure that Indigenous students receive the supports — financial and other — needed to finish their programs of study. We should be adopting methods of teaching that are more hands on and experiential. We should be <a href="https://theconversation.com/back-to-the-land-how-one-indigenous-community-is-beating-the-odds-81540">doing research with Indigenous communities</a>. We should be restructuring the tenure system so that community work is better supported and acknowledged. We need to unearth the <a href="https://theconversation.com/dear-white-people-wake-up-canada-is-racist-83124">systemic racism</a> that <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-equity-myth">exists on campus</a>. And I could go on.</p>
<p>Also, the initiatives brought forward under the rhetoric of indigenizing the academy are not new — educators and researchers have been raising these issues for decades as evident in the work of <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=J5NtoXOd0tcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=marie+battiste&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjA_YiJkcTXAhUH-mMKHbzKDcUQ6AEIOzAD#v=onepage&q=marie%20battiste&f=false">Marie Battiste</a>. The “initiatives” are actually just best practices for teaching and research. </p>
<p>Many educators have long-called for more <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VX_XHdbL0ZUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=equity+and+diversity+in+professors+canada&ots=OvecEpOddK&sig=z6IHTr4_Lwm_6Op6lEHcVr0gGVg#v=onepage&q=equity%20and%20diversity%20in%20professors%20canada&f=false">equity and diversity in professorship</a>, <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Finding_Freedom_in_the_Classroom.html?id=NQZBQbyKDGYC&redir_esc=y">teaching practices</a>, <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/speced/LearningforAll2013.pdf">curriculum content, and learning and assessment </a>. These calls aim to make educational systems better serve a diverse group of students, whether Indigenous students, racialized ones or students with disabilities. </p>
<p>Furthermore, ethics boards at universities work diligently to guide researchers so that possible harms to communities are reduced and research benefits optimized, something that, whenever applicable, includes community consultations and partnerships. None of this is new. </p>
<h2>Dangerous opportunities</h2>
<p>Why are we calling this “indigenizing” when really we’re just trying to do what’s right? In other words, isn’t teaching about Indigenous histories simply teaching a more complete history? Isn’t making sure that we use examples that Indigenous students can relate to just good teaching?</p>
<p>I’m also struck by the general lack of discussion about <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/indigenous-education-university-saskatchewan-1.4299551">what it means to indigenize the academy</a>. The effort to indigenize universities is, as such, being done with little critical engagement with what “indigenization” might involve, especially if it is to benefit Indigenous nations.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"912059084098043904"}"></div></p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Drawing on the Oxford definition of indigenize, one scholar, Elina Hill, has suggested that <a href="https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/peninsula/article/view/11513/3212">to indigenize might mean bringing something (in this case the university) “under the control, dominance, or influence of Indigenous or local people.</a>” Alternately, it might mean to “make indigenous.” These possibilities, she notes, are “miraculous at best or dangerous at worst.” </p>
<p>The miraculous possibility is unlikely to say the least. The dangerous possibility — to make indigenous — is eerily similar to a growing trend of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/becoming-indigenous-the-rise-of-eastern-metis-in-canada-80794">settler self-indigenization</a>” whereby settlers with no prior connection to an Indigenous community become Indigenous. If universities claim to be indigenizing, how might this affect our understanding of Indigenous nations as separate from the Canadian state? </p>
<h2>Universities as colonizers</h2>
<p>Hill <a href="https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/peninsula/article/view/11513/3212">most poignantly asks</a>, “Could there be instances in the end where…Indigenous people are not even necessary for indigenizing?”</p>
<p>This question might seem, at first glance, to be pushing the argument to the absurd. However, given that advocates for indigenization constantly reiterate that doing so is good for universities, it might be exactly on point. </p>
<p>Ultimately, much of what has happened around indigenizing the academy has been aimed at making the university — a settler institution — a better system. As Hill says, this creates “a better kind of university, with knowledge toward a better kind of still colonial Canada.” That the term indigenous — and indeed the verb to indigenize — does not need to refer to Indigenous peoples (that is, distinct nations) should not be forgotten.</p>
<p>Indigenizing as it is now practiced is largely good — <a href="https://theconversation.com/all-mouth-and-no-ears-settlers-with-opinions-83338">for settlers</a>, and perhaps for individual Indigenous students.</p>
<p>But it comes with a profound risk: Will Indigenous nations lose control over their intellectual property? Over how their traditions are taught and written? Will universities continue to facilitate colonization, reinforcing the belief that all that is worth knowing, all intellectual traditions, are, or should be, centred within the university? </p>
<p>Instead of working in their communities, will elders be asked to put their time and energy into supporting settler faculty as they attempt to “indigenize”?</p>
<h2>True reparation will be painful</h2>
<p>It should be clear by now that I don’t think “indigenizing” is the right approach to addressing Canada’s colonialism within universities. But if not indigenizing, what should we be doing as academics, as university administrators, as Canadians? </p>
<p>The question we need to consider is: In what ways have the university system and academic traditions harmed Indigenous nations, and how can we begin the process of reparation?</p>
<p>The first step is to start listening, listening to Indigenous scholars and to Indigenous nations on whose lands our universities stand. As such, I don’t have answers. I can’t tell you, or tell academic institutions across Canada, what needs to happen because knowing will require long-term, on-going engagement with Indigenous communities.</p>
<p>But I do know that reparation can’t be centred on universities, or on the needs of settler-colonizers. In fact, reparation will likely be painful for settlers because it will be profoundly unsettling. </p>
<p>If it feels good, if it feels easy, if it feels comfortable, we’re not doing it right.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monique Giroux does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Calls to “indigenize” universities must start with listening - to Indigenous scholars and nations. And real reparation will be painful for settlers, for it will be unsettling.Monique Giroux, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies, University of LethbridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/839122017-09-26T16:43:03Z2017-09-26T16:43:03ZDecolonising research methodology must include undoing its dirty history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186971/original/file-20170921-8202-1lo7g8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A statue of former Cape Colony governor Cecil Rhodes is removed from the University of Cape Town after student protests.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Maori anthropologist Linda Tuhiwai Smith, in her seminal work <a href="https://nycstandswithstandingrock.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/linda-tuhiwai-smith-decolonizing-methodologies-research-and-indigenous-peoples.pdf">Decolonising Methodologies</a>, argues that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Re-search is a dirty word. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hyphenating “research” into “re-search” is very useful because it reveals what is involved, what it really means, and goes beyond the naive view of “research” as an innocent pursuit of knowledge. </p>
<p>It underscores the fact that “re-searching” involves the activity of undressing other people so as to see them naked. It is also a process of reducing some people to the level of micro-organism: putting them under a magnifying glass to peep into their private lives, secrets, taboos, thinking, and their sacred worlds. </p>
<p>Building on Smith’s work, my concern here is the context in which re-search methodology is designed and deployed. In particular, it concerns the relationship between methodology with power, the imperial/colonial project as well as the implications for those who happened to be the re-searched. </p>
<p>Broadly speaking, what is at issue is re-search as a terrain of pitting the interests of the “re-searcher” against those of the “re-searched.” The core concern is about how re-search is still steeped in the Euro-North America-centric worldview. Re-searching continues to give the “re-searcher” the power to define. The “re-searched” appear as <a href="https://nycstandswithstandingrock.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/linda-tuhiwai-smith-decolonizing-methodologies-research-and-indigenous-peoples.pdf">“specimens” rather than people</a>.</p>
<p>I define re-search methodology as a process of seeking to know the <em>“Other”</em> who becomes the object, rather than subject of re-search and what is means to be known by others. </p>
<p>That is why methodology needs to be decolonised. The process of its decolonisation is an ethical, ontological and political exercise rather than simply one of approach and ways of producing knowledge. </p>
<h2>Whose methodology is it anyway?</h2>
<p>When Europeans shifted from a God-centred society to secular thinking during the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment">Enlightenment period</a>, they inaugurated the science of “knowability”. God was no longer the only one who could understand the world. The rational human could too. </p>
<p>This idea is best captured in Rene Descartes’ famous dictum</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cogito Ergo Sum (I Think, Therefore, I am).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This marks the emergence of the Cartesian philosophy of being and the Cartesian knowing subject: a human defined by her rationality. </p>
<p>Since then, the decolonial theorists have unmasked the person behind the “I” as not just any human being, but the European “Man”. Here was born the idea that “Man” stands for “Human” as well – the beginning of the shift towards the world being seen through a patriarchal lens.</p>
<p>It was during the “Voyages of discovery” that gave rise to colonialism, that European men began to encounter the <em>“Other”</em> and then assume the position of a “knower” and a “re-searcher” who was thirsty to know the <em>“Other”</em>, who emerged as the native Indian, as <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Shakespeare_s_Caliban.html?id=exkBp8aVlVIC&redir_esc=y">Shakespeare’s Caliban</a>, as the African, the Aborigines and the other natives. </p>
<p>The <em>Other</em> had to be re-searched to establish whether they were actually human or not. Here was born the methodology as a handmaiden of colonialism and imperialism.</p>
<h2>From ‘ethnographic’ to ‘biometric’ state</h2>
<p>In his book <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/define-and-rule/">Define and Rule</a>, Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani argued that every colonial conqueror was preoccupied with the “native question”. This was about how a minority of white colonial conquerors were to rule over a majority of conquered black people. </p>
<p>To resolve the “native question” the conquered black “native” had to be known in minute detail by the white coloniser. Thus re-search became a critical part of the imperial-colonial project. The European anthropologist became an important re-searcher, producing ethnographic data and knowledge that was desperately needed by colonialism to deal with the nagging “native question”. </p>
<p>As a result of this desire to know the “native” for colonial administrative purposes the colonial state emerged as an “ethnographic state”, interested and involved in ‘re-searching’ the native so as to “define” and “rule” over the “native”. </p>
<p>It was under the “ethnographic state” that colonial ideologues such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Babington-Macaulay-Baron-Macaulay">Thomas Babington Macaulay</a> in India, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/frederick-lugard-british-colonial-administrator-occupies-kano-west-africa">Lord Frederick Lugard</a> in West and East Africa, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/cecil-john-rhodes">Cecil John Rhodes</a> in Southern Africa used this data to malevolent ends, both to invent the idea of the native and to control her. They assumed the status of experts on the colonised natives and produced treatise such as <a href="http://what-when-how.com/western-colonialism/dual-mandate-africa-western-colonialism/">The Dual Mandate in Africa</a> which assumed the status of modules on how to rule over “natives”. </p>
<p>Today, with the rise of “global terrorism,” drug-trafficking and the problem of migration, new forms of surveillance, and state control have emerged. Keith Breckenridge in his award winning <a href="http://wiser.wits.ac.za/content/biometric-state-global-politics-identification-and-surveillance-south-africa-1850-present">book </a> reflected on concepts of “biometric state” and “documentary state”. These use machines to extract, capture, and store information about all people, but particularly “Muslims” and “blacks”, whose ways of worship, living and actions do not fit into the European template.</p>
<p>What is the role of re-search in this and what methodologies are used in trying to know the <em>“Other”</em>, that is, the unwanted migrant and the feared Muslim. </p>
<h2>Unmasking, rebelling, re-positioning and recasting</h2>
<p>Decolonising methodology must begin with unmasking the modern world system and the global order as the broader context from which re-search and methodology are cascading and are influenced. It also means acknowledging and recognising its dirtiness.</p>
<p>Our present crisis is that we continued to use re-search methods that are not fundamentally different from before. The critique of methodology is interpreted as being anti-re-search itself. Fearing this label, we (modern scholars and intellectuals) have been responsible for forcing students to adhere religiously to existing ways of knowing and understanding the world.</p>
<p>No research proposal can pass without agreement on methodology. No thesis can pass without recognisable methodology. There is a mandatory demand: how did you go about getting to know what you have put together as your thesis? </p>
<p>Consequently, methodology has become the straitjacket that every new researcher has to wear if they are to discover knowledge. This blocks all attempts to know differently. It has become a disciplinary tool that makes it difficult for new knowledge to be discovered and generated. </p>
<p>In the knowledge domain those who try to exercise what the leading Argentinian semiotician and decolonial theorist Whater D. Mignolo termed <a href="http://waltermignolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/epistemicdisobedience-2.pdf">“epistemic disobedience”</a> are disciplined into an existing methodology, in the process draining it of its profundity.</p>
<p>Decolonising methodology, therefore, entails unmasking its role and purpose in re-search. It also about rebelling against it; shifting the identity of its object so as to re-position those who have been objects of research into questioners, critics, theorists, knowers, and communicators. And, finally, it means recasting research into what Europe has done to humanity and nature rather than following Europe as a teacher to the rest of the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83912/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The process of decolonising research methodology is an ethical, ontological and political exercise rather than simply one of approach and ways of producing knowledge.Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Director of Scholarship at Change Management Unit at the Vice Chancellors' office; Professor and Head of Archie Mafeje Research Institute, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/843452017-09-21T22:47:48Z2017-09-21T22:47:48ZHow I am learning to include Indigenous knowledge in the classroom<p>As summertime began to wane a few weeks back, I began my usual reflections about prepping for my university teaching responsibilities. Getting back into the classroom with my graduate students always carries a sense of excitement. Teaching is a deeply personal act for most of us. We bring who we are and what we care about, encountering students who have weighty hopes and dreams. It’s an awesome responsibility. </p>
<p>But this year is different from others. There is a new duty felt by teachers at all levels of our education system to make good on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) <a href="https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwiB-t-G8rHWAhUN-2MKHb-7DegQFggmMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trc.ca%2Fwebsites%2Ftrcinstitution%2FFile%2F2015%2FFindings%2FCalls_to_Action_English2.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGqbLSEIxbvyUvzcq87FMgbwOWohg">calls to action</a>, creating both a critically important opportunity and an unease about our preparedness. </p>
<p>Nation-wide, there are increasing efforts on the part of many universities, colleges and schools to “<a href="http://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/indigenizing-the-academy/">Indigenize” our curriculum</a> and to “<a href="https://selu.usask.ca/documents/research-and-publications/srrj/SRRJ-1-2-Smith.pdf">decolonize</a>” <a href="http://www.mfnerc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Section6_Decolonizing-Our-Practice-Indigenizing-Our-Teaching.pdf">how we teach</a>. </p>
<p>Thankfully, <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-why-most-teachers-need-indigenous-coaches-82875">many educators now understand</a> our collective Canadian future depends on how effectively we reconcile ourselves to a past marred by the <a href="http://wherearethechildren.ca/en/">devastating reality of residential schools</a>. A past that still imposes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/aug/30/our-society-is-broken-what-can-stop-canadas-first-nations-suicide-epidemic">deep unfairness</a> for <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canada-150/canada-day-indigenous-perspectives-on-canada-150/article35498737/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">Indigenous peoples today</a>. </p>
<p>For my part, I have needed to find a way to make the process of understanding these past truths a personal journey. </p>
<h2>Learning from Indigenous writers</h2>
<p>As summer was beginning, I found myself in several bookshops featuring large displays of Indigenous authors. I wondered why I’d never, in all my life, seen such a display before. Naturally, the TRC had called attention to the issues regarding Indigenous peoples. Were these displays part of an ephemeral fad or the efforts of committed booksellers? </p>
<p>Rather than view this cynically, the hopeful me considered that everything has to start somewhere. So, here we are, at long last, shining a light upon Indigenous authors who have been carving out their writing lives for many years and have <a href="https://theconversation.com/writing-is-the-air-i-breathe-publishing-as-an-inuit-writer-81536">more than earned</a> their time in the sun. </p>
<p>I knew little about <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/books/108-indigenous-writers-to-read-as-recommended-by-you-1.4197475">this literature</a>, although I did collaborate with Tompson Highway and Patricia Cano on an <a href="http://www.utppublishing.com/How-Theatre-Educates-Convergences-and-Counterpoints-with-Artists-Scholars-and-Advocates.html">edited collection about theatre and education</a> long ago. I also introduced some of Tompson’s brilliant plays, like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ7jiGUJe2I">Rez Sisters</a>, to Grade 11 students in the girls’ school where I taught in the early part of my career. And I have enjoyed the work of other Indigenous theatre-makers like <a href="http://www.ipaa.ca/membership/artists/eastern/monique-mojica">Monique Mojica</a> and <a href="http://www.drewhaydentaylor.com/">Drew Hayden Taylor</a>. </p>
<p>Still, I was taken aback that I hadn’t, in all my years of formal schooling, encountered Indigenous fiction writers from this vast array now on display. It is a valuable exercise to face your own ignorance. I picked up several books to start my reading journey — a small but important step. </p>
<p>A few of the authors’ names were known to me because they are political figures or activists or are, in some other way, in the public eye. Many were entirely unknown to me. I want to invite my settler students to follow up with just such an activity; it is a humbling recognition of the distance we have yet to travel, many of us. Rather than a depressing sign, though, I found hope in it. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"864106909347045377"}"></div></p>
<p>I have learned so much from Wab Kinew’s <em><a href="http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/417538/reason-you-walk#9780143193555">The Reason You Walk</a></em>, about Anishinaabe life, about myself, about this land. Among others, I also read <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/joseph-boyden/article35881215/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">Joseph Boyden’s now controversial work</a>. Reading Boyden’s fiction alongside that of commentators — who have weighed in on what is at stake, and for whom, on questions of identity, inheritance and appropriation — is also vitally important to this education work. </p>
<p>Art surely has a crucial role to play in working through these troubling questions.</p>
<h2>What have we failed to know?</h2>
<p>As another small step on my learning journey, I will assign some of this reading to the students in my advanced research methodology course. </p>
<p>You might ask what this has to do with research methodology? Well, everything really. If research is how we advance our understanding through the production of knowledge and build upon what it is we think we know, we would do well to ask some of the most fundamental questions to be asked by Canadians today: What do we know and how do we know it? </p>
<p>What have we failed to know and at what cost? Let’s start here and see just how much more is possible to discover when we can look back, and look ahead, with integrity and generosity. </p>
<p>I start the reading in my research methodology course with Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s 1999 text, <em><a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Decolonizing_Methodologies.html?id=Nad7afStdr8C">Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples</a></em>. She is a Maori scholar who, in this work, helps readers understand the devastating historical and on-going impact of the “Western cultural archive” on Indigenous people everywhere. And on the ways settlers have come to think about the very act of research and the ideas of imperialism we hold on to. She shows us how we see, literally, “through Imperial eyes.” </p>
<h2>What are our obligations as researchers?</h2>
<p>I ask my students to take a few steps back from their imagined and often beloved research topics to consider how they have come to their interest in a particular area of research; what they have learned about it from scholarly communities and from the public record, alike. These students bring many different histories and different relationships to the canon of Western scientific knowledge. Together we begin a small exploration of how we have come to know what we believe we know, and to chart the pull to sameness of much of that knowledge. </p>
<p>We consider, simply, what it truly means to understand that perception is an act of interpretation. These are small explorations that often unearth discomforting truths about how we have been educated, what “expertise” we have doggedly held onto, and ultimately, the limits of our seeing and ways of knowing.</p>
<p>Adding Wab Kinew’s memoir into our reading this year, I am inviting students to consider what they have learned about Indigenous history in Canada. And to ask what the implications might be of that learning — for their understanding of nationhood and their sense and dreams of themselves as researchers. We will talk about how memoir as a genre makes us bear witness in particular ways. We will speculate about what our obligations might be, as witnesses, when we take in another’s story or carry out research. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186902/original/file-20170920-16414-nx6429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186902/original/file-20170920-16414-nx6429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186902/original/file-20170920-16414-nx6429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186902/original/file-20170920-16414-nx6429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186902/original/file-20170920-16414-nx6429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186902/original/file-20170920-16414-nx6429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186902/original/file-20170920-16414-nx6429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Girls at a Residential School, in Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories. The odds of dying for Aboriginal children in residential schools was higher than the odds of dying for Canadians serving in the Second World War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lac-bac/14112742441">(Library and Archives Canada)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At one point in his book, Kinew says simply, “Colonization is not a good backdrop for family life.” There is much for a group of emerging researchers to consider about not only colonialism, the historical abuse of survivors of residential schooling and the contemporary lives of their descendants, but also the on-going violence, <a href="https://theconversation.com/media-portrays-indigenous-and-muslim-youth-as-savages-and-barbarians-79153">misrepresentations</a>, and eclipsing of Indigenous life, culture and care-taking of this land. </p>
<p>To what are we called, then, as education researchers? </p>
<h2>A humble path to a better Canada</h2>
<p>My first department meeting of the year was opened by a now-resident Elder in our community, Cat Criger, who helped us — settlers — better understand how to bring ourselves to the pedagogical and political act of land acknowledgment. </p>
<p>I was craving this lesson because of my growing discomfort with the now reflexive and largely symbolic land acknowledgements undertaken in many public institutions. As with many things in education, the risk of rote response looms large. But here, instead, we had the opportunity to bring ourselves, our different histories and identities, into the room and consider both the simplicity and the complexity of the acknowledgement we were undertaking. </p>
<p>And this is not a one-off event, thankfully. Faculty and students will have the opportunity to meet with Cat throughout the year for personal and pedagogical consultations. That is generous and valuable professional development; one sign, I hope, of taking our Indigenous education journeys seriously.</p>
<p>Those of us who teach have our own trek on this path to a different and better Canada. Guided by humility about what we don’t know and listening carefully to <a href="https://theconversation.com/all-mouth-and-no-ears-settlers-with-opinions-83338">those who do</a>, will keep us on a good path.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Gallagher receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>“What have we failed to know and at what cost?” An education professor draws upon Indigenous literature to support a personal journey into classroom decolonization.Kathleen Gallagher, Distinguished Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/815402017-08-24T00:47:32Z2017-08-24T00:47:32ZBack to the land: How one Indigenous community is beating the odds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179719/original/file-20170725-20161-q2pkal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indigenous research participants described a connection to the land as fundamental to their physical, social, psychological and spiritual health. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>In northern Ontario, surrounding James Bay and Hudson Bay, lie six remote First Nations communities. </p>
<p>They range in size from several hundred members to several thousand. They have no road access linking them to other communities in the region, and with varying degrees of ease, they can be reached by rail, air, boat or winter ice road. Many of these communities struggle with a <a href="http://www.nelhin.on.ca/Page.aspx?id=12178">host of mental health issues</a> including <a href="http://peoplesinquiry.com">high rates of suicide</a>, substance abuse and depression.</p>
<p>One community stands out, by virtue of its low rates of suicide and mental health services utilization. This community shares a history of oppression, victimization and suffering with its sister communities. It also endured the relatively recent trauma of a natural disaster. </p>
<p>How is it that this one community has produced what appear to be more positive mental health outcomes?</p>
<p>To investigate this question, I developed a research project in collaboration with Dr. Russ Walsh of Duquesne University. We interviewed community leaders and resident mental health service providers about the strengths of their community with respect to mental health. As non-Indigenous psychologists, we used a culturally sensitive method that focused upon listening and that privileged the perspectives of participants. </p>
<p>We avoid mentioning any communities by name, to protect the confidentiality of participants. There are relatively few communities in the James and Hudson Bay region and populations are relatively small. Our research participants included community leaders and elders. Even limited information about these communities would risk identifying individuals.</p>
<p>The strength of community members’ connection to the land emerged as the most <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11469-017-9791-6">striking finding</a>. Participants spoke of this connection as woven through mental, physical, spiritual and emotional dimensions of the self. They described it as foundational to their faith, uniting those with otherwise differing spiritual beliefs and possibly stabilizing the community in the face of other differences.</p>
<p>“Back to the land,” said one community member. “When you’re there, it’s like your spirit, your mind and your physical well-being — everything improves when you’re out there; it’s like you rejuvenate while you’re out there.”</p>
<p>“We have a belief,” said another community member. “I’m not going to give it a word of religion or culture. No, it’s a way of life, you know. It always was in the beginning, and it is today.”</p>
<h2>The medicine wheel</h2>
<p>A challenge for this study, as for the bulk of research within Indigenous communities, was the “outsider” status of the researchers themselves. Despite our interest in, and concern for, the well-being of Indigenous communities, we remain unavoidably non-Indigenous Western psychologists. This “from the outside in” orientation runs the <a href="http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/29134.html">risk of further oppression and colonization</a> in the name of scientific truth. </p>
<p>Qualitative methodology, despite its focus on the experiences of participants in their own words, still undertakes the task of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/070674371105600203">organizing and interpreting participants’ accounts</a>, and hence also entails the risk of colonizing participants’ experiences. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183045/original/file-20170822-13644-18tble1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183045/original/file-20170822-13644-18tble1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183045/original/file-20170822-13644-18tble1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183045/original/file-20170822-13644-18tble1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183045/original/file-20170822-13644-18tble1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183045/original/file-20170822-13644-18tble1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183045/original/file-20170822-13644-18tble1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Community support and collaboration is vital, for research run by non-Indigenous scholars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To minimize this risk, we decided to organize and interpret participant narratives using the medicine wheel of traditional healing. Rod McCormick, the B.C. Regional Innovation Chair in Aboriginal Health at Thompson Rivers University and a member of the Mohawk (Kahnienkehake) nation, provides the following <a href="http://www.ubcpress.ca/healing-traditions">overview</a> of the medicine wheel:</p>
<p>“The Aboriginal medicine wheel is perhaps the best representation of an Aboriginal world view related to healing. The medicine wheel describes the separate dimensions of the self — mental, physical, emotional and spiritual — as equal and as parts of a larger whole. The medicine wheel represents the balance that exists between all things. Traditional Aboriginal healing incorporates the physical, social, psychological and spiritual being.” </p>
<p>The medicine wheel identifies four central themes: Physical health, intellectual health, spiritual health and emotional health. Indigenous Canadian healing traditionalists view <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515070802066847">the person as comprised of these integrated categories</a>. An individual’s health and wellness result when these realms are balanced and integrated. By organizing our qualitative analysis along these lines, we sought to frame the results in culturally appropriate terms, and thereby set the stage for community conversations regarding mental health.</p>
<p>Through my work in northern Ontario, I have developed connections with mental health workers in the region. Over several months, Dr. Walsh and I had a series of conversations with them regarding their interest in community-oriented and strength-based research to inform their mental health interventions. The proposed study was supported by the community’s leadership.</p>
<h2>Connection to the land</h2>
<p>To our eyes, the most notable finding was the way in which connection to the land was interwoven throughout all aspects of the medicine wheel. </p>
<p>Participants’ comments regarding physical, spiritual, mental and emotional health often referred to attitudes and practices that affirmed a fundamental connection to their land: </p>
<p>“To know the land… you know you’re capable of things other kids aren’t, knowing where I came from, what I’m capable of.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183044/original/file-20170822-13672-15x9f09.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183044/original/file-20170822-13672-15x9f09.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183044/original/file-20170822-13672-15x9f09.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183044/original/file-20170822-13672-15x9f09.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183044/original/file-20170822-13672-15x9f09.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183044/original/file-20170822-13672-15x9f09.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183044/original/file-20170822-13672-15x9f09.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Distance from outside influence in this community also facilitates greater autonomy and a stronger identity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This connection informed individual and community efforts to maintain well-being and also seemed to provide a bridge between different spiritual beliefs. That is, community members of divergent spiritual orientations shared a belief in the land as foundational to their faith. This cohesion was evident in community activities and programs, as well as in acknowledgement of shared culture and history.</p>
<p>It may well be the case that members’ shared connection to the land and ready access to the land was sufficiently strong to tolerate differences that might otherwise polarize a community. And from this shared sense of connection may follow the sense of hope expressed by most of the participants: </p>
<p>“Everybody, even if they disagree… when it comes to a crisis and someone
needs help… that’s where your strength is: The whole community comes
together.” </p>
<p>This may hold implications for health and healing initiatives both within and beyond this community. If a sense of connection to the land is a central feature of well-being, then it may need to be a central feature of mental health interventions.</p>
<h2>Identity and autonomy</h2>
<p>Two other themes emerged. One was the community’s relative distance from “outside influence,” facilitating greater identity and autonomy. The other was the rather recent shared trauma of natural disaster and relocation, which required a pulling together of community resources in a way that more diffuse challenges and traumas may not. </p>
<p>To the degree that these factors are foundational to the strengths of this community, there may be implications for more general intervention and prevention programs. Specifically, these findings suggest that when communities can unite to face a set of problems, and have a fair degree of autonomy (or freedom from outsider influence) in responding to those problems, they may be best able to draw upon their shared resilience and communal spirit. For those wishing to facilitate this resilience and spirit, the challenge is to do so in a way that affirms rather than usurps the community’s independence.</p>
<p>We plan to continue our investigation of these issues with a follow up study. This will address the role of land-based interventions in promoting resilience and mental health within a Cree community in northern Ontario in the coming year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Danto received a research grant from University of Guelph-Humber</span></em></p>One First Nations community stands out in northern Ontario, for its low rates of suicide and other mental health challenges. The residents say it’s all about their connection to the land.David Danto, Program Head of Psychology, University of Guelph-HumberLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/809972017-07-19T17:01:16Z2017-07-19T17:01:16ZHere’s the three-pronged approach we’re using in our own research to tackle the reproducibility issue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178674/original/file-20170718-31872-1uv1xdv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Step one is not being afraid to reexamine a site that's been previously excavated.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dominic O'Brien. Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you keep up with health or science news, you’ve probably been whipsawed between conflicting reports. Just days apart you may hear that “science says” coffee’s good for you, no actually it’s bad for you, actually red wine holds the secret to long life. As <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rnq1NpHdmw">comedian John Oliver put it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“After a certain point, all that ridiculous information can make you wonder: is science bullshit? To which the answer is clearly no. But there is a lot of bullshit currently masquerading as science.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A big part of this problem has to do with what’s been called a “<a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/reproducibility-5484">reproducibility crisis</a>” in science – many studies if run a second time don’t come up with the same results. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/533452a">Scientists are worried</a> about this situation, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/collections/byblhcfwhw">high-profile</a> international <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aab2374">research journals</a> have raised the alarm, too, calling on researchers to put more effort into ensuring their results can be reproduced, rather than only striving for splashy, one-off outcomes.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/opinion/sunday/why-do-so-many-studies-fail-to-replicate.html">Concerns about</a> <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/03/psychologys-replication-crisis-cant-be-wished-away/472272/">irreproducible results</a> <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/future_tense/2016/04/biomedicine_facing_a_worse_replication_crisis_than_the_one_plaguing_psychology.html">in science resonate</a> <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/science-isnt-broken/">outside the ivory tower</a>, as well, because a lot of this research translates into information that affects our everyday lives. </p>
<p>For example, it informs what we know about how to stay healthy, how doctors should look after us when we’re sick, how best to educate our children and how to organize our communities. If study results are not reproducible, then we can’t trust them to give good advice on solving our everyday problems – and society-wide challenges. Reproducibility is not just a minor technicality for specialists; it’s a pressing issue that affects the role of modern science in society.</p>
<p>Once we’ve identified that reproducibility is a big problem, the question becomes: How do we tackle it? Part of the answer has to do with changing incentives for researchers. But there are plenty of things we in the research community can do right now in the course of our scientific work.</p>
<p>It might come as a surprise that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-015-9272-9">archaeologists are at the forefront</a> of finding ways to improve the situation. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22968">recent paper in Nature</a> demonstrates a concrete three-pronged approach to improving the reproducibility of scientific findings.</p>
<h2>Going back to where it all started</h2>
<p>In our new publication we describe recent work at an archaeological site in northern Australia. The results of our excavations and laboratory analyses show that <a href="http://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">people arrived in Australia 65,000 years ago</a>, substantially earlier than the previous consensus estimate of 47,000 years ago. <a href="http://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">This date has exciting implications</a> for our understandings of human evolution.</p>
<p>A less obvious detail about this study is the care we’ve taken to make our results reproducible. Our reproducibility strategy had three parts: fieldwork, labwork and data analyses.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178680/original/file-20170718-10320-1sapmfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178680/original/file-20170718-10320-1sapmfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178680/original/file-20170718-10320-1sapmfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178680/original/file-20170718-10320-1sapmfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178680/original/file-20170718-10320-1sapmfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178680/original/file-20170718-10320-1sapmfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178680/original/file-20170718-10320-1sapmfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178680/original/file-20170718-10320-1sapmfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ben Marwick and colleagues excavating at Madjedbebe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dominic O'Brien. Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our first step toward reproducibility was our choice of what to investigate. Rather than striking out to someplace new, we reexcavated an archaeological site <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.014">previously known to have very old artifacts</a>.</p>
<p>The rockshelter site Madjedbebe in Australia’s Northern Territory had been excavated twice before. Famously, excavations there in 1989 indicated that people had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/345153a0">arrived in Australia by about 50,000 years ago</a>. But this age was not accepted by many archaeologists, who refused to accept anything older than 47,000 years ago.</p>
<p>This age was controversial from its first publication, and our goal in revisiting the site was to check if it was reliable or not. Could that controversial 50,000-years age be reproduced, or was it just a chance result that didn’t indicate the true time period for human habitation in Australia?</p>
<p>Like many scientists, archaeologists are generally less interested in returning to old discoveries, instead preferring to forge new paths in search of novel results. The problem with this is that it can lead to many unresolved questions, making it difficult to build a solid foundation of knowledge. </p>
<h2>Double-check the lab tests</h2>
<p>The second part of our reproducibility strategy was to verify that our laboratory analyses were reliable.</p>
<p>Our team used <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/luminescence-dating-cosmic-method-171538">optically stimulated luminescence</a> methods to date the sand grains near the ancient artifacts. This method is complex, and there are only a few places in the world that have the instruments and skills to date these kinds of samples.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178820/original/file-20170719-27696-r2h9i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178820/original/file-20170719-27696-r2h9i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178820/original/file-20170719-27696-r2h9i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178820/original/file-20170719-27696-r2h9i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178820/original/file-20170719-27696-r2h9i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178820/original/file-20170719-27696-r2h9i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178820/original/file-20170719-27696-r2h9i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178820/original/file-20170719-27696-r2h9i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zenobia Jacobs produced the new ages for the Madjebdebe site based on her work in the Luminescence Dating Laboratory at the University of Wollongong, Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Wollongong</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We first analyzed our samples in our laboratory at the <a href="http://smah.uow.edu.au/sees/facilities/UOW002889.html">University of Wollongong</a> to find their ages. Then we sent blind duplicate samples to another laboratory at the <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/ipas/facilities/luminescence/">University of Adelaide</a> to analyze, without telling that lab our results. With both sets of analyses in hand, we compared them; it turned out in this case that they got the same ages as we did for the same samples.</p>
<p>This kind of verification is not a common practice in archaeology, but because this site was already controversial, we wanted to make sure the ages we obtained were reproducible.</p>
<p>While this extra work involved some additional cost and time, it’s vital to proving that our dates give the true ages of the sediments surrounding the artifacts. This verification shows that our lab results are not due to chance, or the unique conditions of our laboratory. Other archaeologists, and the public, can be more confident in our findings because we’ve taken these extra steps. This external checking should be standard practice in any science where controversial findings are at stake. </p>
<h2>Don’t let the computer be a black box</h2>
<p>After we completed the excavation and lab analyses, we analyzed the data on our computers. This stage of our research was very similar to what scientists in many other fields do. We loaded the raw data into our computers to visualize it with plots and test hypotheses with statistical methods.</p>
<p>However, while many researchers do this work by pointing and clicking using off-the-shelf software, we tried as much as possible to write scripts in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/517109a">R programming language</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178686/original/file-20170718-10283-q6g5bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178686/original/file-20170718-10283-q6g5bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178686/original/file-20170718-10283-q6g5bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178686/original/file-20170718-10283-q6g5bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178686/original/file-20170718-10283-q6g5bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178686/original/file-20170718-10283-q6g5bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178686/original/file-20170718-10283-q6g5bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178686/original/file-20170718-10283-q6g5bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Could be the enemy of reproducibility if it helps obscure the steps in data analysis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/erinkohlenbergphoto/5353222369">Erin Kohlenberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pointing and clicking generally leaves no traces of important decisions made during data analysis. Mouse-driven analyses leave the researcher with a final result, but none of the steps to get that result is saved. This makes it <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-computers-broke-science-and-what-we-can-do-to-fix-it-49938">difficult to retrace the steps</a> of an analysis, and check the assumptions made by the researcher.</p>
<p>On the other hand, our scripts contain a record of all our data analysis steps and decisions. They’re like an exact recipe to generate our results. Other researchers not using scripts for their data analysis don’t have these recipes, so their results are much harder to reproduce. </p>
<p>Another advantage of our choice to use scripts is that we can share them with the scientific community and the public. We follow <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4550">standard practices</a> by making our script files and main data files <a href="https://osf.io/qwfcz/">freely available online</a> so anyone can inspect the details of our analysis, or explore new ideas using our data.</p>
<p>It’s easy to understand why many researchers prefer point-and-click over writing scripts for their data analysis. Often that’s what they were taught as students. It’s hard work and time-consuming to learn new analysis tools among the pressures of teaching, applying for grants, doing fieldwork and writing publications. Despite these challenges, there is an accelerating shift away from point-and-click toward scripted analyses in many areas of science.</p>
<h2>Combating irreproducibility one step at a time</h2>
<p>Our recent paper is part of a new movement emerging in many disciplines to improve the reproducibility of science. Examples of recent papers that have made a commitment to reproducibility similar to ours have come from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22975">epidemiology</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0160">oceanography</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20470">neuroscience</a>.</p>
<p>We hope our example will inspire other scientists to be strategic about improving the reproducibility of their research. Some of these steps can be difficult for researchers: It means learning how to use unfamiliar software, and publicly sharing more of their data and methods than they’re accustomed to. But they’re important for generating reliable results – and for maintaining public confidence in scientific knowledge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Marwick receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the University of Wollongong, and the University of Washington. This work was supported in part by the University of Washington eScience Institute.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zenobia Jacobs receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>A team of archaeologists strived to improve the reproducibility of their results, influencing their choices in the field, in the lab and during data analysis.Ben Marwick, Associate Professor of Archaeology, University of WashingtonZenobia Jacobs, Professor, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/768512017-05-30T01:49:32Z2017-05-30T01:49:32ZResearch transparency: 5 questions about open science answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171204/original/file-20170526-6389-1eepgnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opening up data and materials helps with research transparency.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/book-wisdom-life-read-magic-background-515241850">REDPIXEL.PL via Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>What is “open science”?</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/ak6jr">Open science</a> is a set of practices designed to make scientific processes and results more transparent and accessible to people outside the research team. It includes making complete research materials, data and lab procedures freely available online to anyone. Many scientists are also proponents of <a href="https://sparcopen.org/open-access/">open access</a>, a parallel movement involving making research articles available to read without a subscription or access fee.</p>
<p><strong>Why are researchers interested in open science? What problems does it aim to address?</strong></p>
<p>Recent research finds that many published scientific findings might not be reliable. For example, researchers have reported being able to replicate <a href="https://elife.elifesciences.org/collections/reproducibility-project-cancer-biology">only 40 percent</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd3439-c1">or less</a> of <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7391/full/483531a.html">cancer biology results</a>, and a large-scale <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac4716">attempt to replicate 100 recent psychology studies</a> successfully reproduced fewer than half of the original results.</p>
<p>This has come to be called a “<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-found-only-one-third-of-published-psychology-research-is-reliable-now-what-46596">reproducibility crisis</a>.” It’s pushed many scientists to look for ways to improve their research practices and increase study reliability. Practicing open science is one way to do so. When scientists share their underlying materials and data, other scientists can more easily evaluate and attempt to replicate them.</p>
<p>Also, open science can help speed scientific discovery. When scientists share their materials and data, others can use and analyze them in new ways, potentially leading to new discoveries. Some journals are specifically dedicated to publishing data sets for reuse (<a href="https://www.nature.com/sdata/">Scientific Data</a>; <a href="http://openpsychologydata.metajnl.com/">Journal of Open Psychology Data</a>). <a href="http://doi.org/10.5334/jopd.ac">A paper in the latter</a> has already been cited 17 times in under three years – nearly all these citations represent new discoveries, sometimes on topics unrelated to the original research.</p>
<p><strong>Wait – open science sounds just like the way I learned in school that science works. How can this be new?</strong></p>
<p>Under the status quo, science is shared through a single vehicle: Researchers publish journal articles summarizing their studies’ methods and results. The key word here is summary; to write a clear and succinct article, important details may be omitted. Journal articles are vetted via the peer review process, in which an editor and a few experts assess them for quality before publication. But – perhaps surprisingly – the primary data and materials underlying the article are almost never reviewed. </p>
<p>Historically, this made some sense because journal pages were limited, and storing and sharing materials and data were difficult. But with computers and the internet, it’s much easier to practice open science. It’s now feasible to store large quantities of information on personal computers, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/sdata/policies/repositories">online repositories to share study materials and data</a> are becoming more common. Recently, some journals have even begun to <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability">require</a> or <a href="https://osf.io/tvyxz/wiki/5.%20Adoptions%20and%20Endorsements/">reward</a> <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002456">open science practices</a> like publicly posting materials and data.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171205/original/file-20170526-6402-1kb6dxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171205/original/file-20170526-6402-1kb6dxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171205/original/file-20170526-6402-1kb6dxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171205/original/file-20170526-6402-1kb6dxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171205/original/file-20170526-6402-1kb6dxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171205/original/file-20170526-6402-1kb6dxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171205/original/file-20170526-6402-1kb6dxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171205/original/file-20170526-6402-1kb6dxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Open science makes sharing data the default.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/client-passing-documentation-binders-his-partner-330663044">Bacho via Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>There are still some difficulties sharing extremely large data sets and physical materials (such as the specific liquid solutions a chemist might use), and some scientists might have good reasons to keep some information private (for instance, trade secrets or study participants’ personal information). But as time passes, more and more scientists will likely practice open science. And, in turn, science will improve.</p>
<p>Some do view the open science movement as a return to science’s core values. Most researchers over time have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/jer.2007.2.4.3">valued transparency</a> as a key ingredient in evaluating the truth of a claim. Now with technology’s help it is much easier to share everything.</p>
<p><strong>Why isn’t open science the default? What incentives work against open science practices?</strong></p>
<p>Two major forces work against adoption of open science practices: habits and reward structures. First, most established researchers have been practicing closed science for years, even decades, and changing these old habits requires some upfront time and effort. <a href="https://osf.io">Technology</a> is helping speed this process of adopting open habits, but behavioral change is hard. </p>
<p>Second, scientists, like other humans, tend to repeat behaviors that are rewarded and avoid those that are punished. Journal editors have tended to favor publishing papers that tell a tidy story with perfectly clear results. This has led researchers to craft their papers to be free from blemish, omitting “failed” studies that don’t clearly support their theories. But real data are often messy, so being fully transparent can open up researchers to critique. </p>
<p>Additionally, some researchers are afraid of being “scooped” – they worry someone will steal their idea and publish first. Or they fear that others will <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1516564">unfairly benefit</a> from using shared data or materials without putting in as much effort. </p>
<p>Taken together, some researchers worry they will be punished for their openness and are skeptical that the perceived increase in workload that comes with adopting open science habits is needed and worthwhile. We believe scientists must continue to <a href="https://osf.io/tvyxz/">develop systems</a> to <a href="http://www.ourdigitalmags.com/publication/?i=365522&article_id=2657445&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5#%7B%22issue_id%22:365522,%22view%22:%22articleBrowser%22,%22article_id%22:%222657445%22%7D">allay fears</a> and reward openness. </p>
<p><strong>I’m not a scientist; why should I care?</strong></p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171145/original/file-20170526-6380-6rryx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171145/original/file-20170526-6380-6rryx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171145/original/file-20170526-6380-6rryx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171145/original/file-20170526-6380-6rryx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171145/original/file-20170526-6380-6rryx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171145/original/file-20170526-6380-6rryx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171145/original/file-20170526-6380-6rryx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171145/original/file-20170526-6380-6rryx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Open access is the cousin to open science – the idea is that research should be freely available to all, not hidden behind paywalls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/34070876@N08/3602393341">h_pampel</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Science benefits everyone. If you’re reading this article now on a computer, or have ever benefited from an antibiotic, or kicked a bad habit following a psychologist’s advice, then you are a consumer of science. Open science (and its cousin, open access) means that anyone – including teachers, policymakers, journalists and other nonscientists – can access and evaluate study information.</p>
<p>Considering automatic enrollment in a 401k at work or whether to have that elective screening procedure at the doctor? Want to ensure your tax dollars are spent on policies and programs that actually work? Access to high-quality research evidence matters to you. Open materials and open data facilitate reuse of scientific products, increasing the value of every tax dollar invested. Improving science’s reliability and speed benefits us all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Gilbert supports the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science and has published on replication efforts as part of the Open Science Collaboration. Along with Katherine Corker and Barbara Spellman, she has a chapter called "Open Science: What, why, how" forthcoming in the Stevens Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Corker is on the executive board for the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (improvingpsych.org) and an ambassador for the Center for Open Science (cos.io). She is also an editorial board member for Scientific Data. All of these roles are pro bono.</span></em></p>Partly in response to the so-called ‘reproducibility crisis’ in science, researchers are embracing a set of practices that aim to make the whole endeavor more transparent, more reliable – and better.Elizabeth Gilbert, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South CarolinaKatie Corker, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Grand Valley State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/757422017-05-02T02:35:30Z2017-05-02T02:35:30ZHow to boil down a pile of diverse research papers into one cohesive picture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167402/original/file-20170501-17304-nalnmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C58%2C2114%2C1411&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can an algorithmic method for analyzing published research help zero in on reality?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/shelves-old-scientific-journals-202908463">Sergei25/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From social to natural and applied sciences, overall scientific output has been growing worldwide – it <a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2014/05/global-scientific-output-doubles-every-nine-years.html">doubles every nine years</a>.</p>
<p>Traditionally, researchers solve a problem by conducting new experiments. With the ever-growing body of scientific literature, though, it is becoming more common to make a discovery based on the vast number of already-published journal articles. Researchers synthesize the findings from previous studies to develop a more complete understanding of a phenomenon. Making sense of this explosion of studies is critical for scientists not only to build on previous work but also to push research fields forward.</p>
<p>My colleagues <a href="http://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-directory/detail/?id=3547">Hazhir Rahmandad</a> and <a href="https://pwp.gatech.edu/kamran-paynabar/">Kamran Paynabar</a> and I have developed a new, more robust way to pull together all the prior research on a particular topic. In a five-year joint <a href="http://jalali.mit.edu/gma">project</a> between MIT and Georgia Tech, we worked to create a new technique for research aggregation. Our recently published paper in PLOS ONE introduces a flexible method that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175111">helps synthesize findings from prior studies</a>, even potentially those with diverse methods and diverging results. We call it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalized_model_aggregation">generalized model aggregation</a>, or GMA.</p>
<h2>Pulling it all together</h2>
<p><a href="http://researchguides.ebling.library.wisc.edu/c.php?g=293229&p=1953452">Narrative reviews</a> of the literature have long been a key component of scientific publications. The need for more comprehensive approaches has led to the emergence of two other very useful methods: <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3024725/">systematic review and meta-analysis</a>. </p>
<p>In a systematic review, an author finds and critiques all prior studies around a similar research question. The idea is to bring a reader up to speed on the current state of affairs around a particular research topic.</p>
<p>In a meta-analysis, researchers go one step further and synthesize the findings quantitatively. Essentially, it takes a weighted average of the findings of several studies on one topic. Pooling results from multiple studies is meant to generate a more reliable finding than that of any single study. This is crucially helpful when prior studies reported diverging findings and conclusions. And the rise in the publications of meta-analysis has shot up over the last decade, underscoring their importance across research communities.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163958/original/image-20170404-5725-g8zkku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163958/original/image-20170404-5725-g8zkku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163958/original/image-20170404-5725-g8zkku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163958/original/image-20170404-5725-g8zkku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163958/original/image-20170404-5725-g8zkku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163958/original/image-20170404-5725-g8zkku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163958/original/image-20170404-5725-g8zkku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163958/original/image-20170404-5725-g8zkku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Publications of meta-analyses are on the rise, based on Web of Science search results for articles that included the term ‘meta-analysis’ in their title.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mohammad S. Jalali</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Meta-analysis has been helpful in increasing our understanding of many scientific problems. But it has some challenges. <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/methods-of-meta-analysis/book240589">A typical meta-analysis</a> combines just one explanatory variable (that is, a treatment controlled by the experimenter) and one response variable (for instance, a health outcome). Also, a researcher has to be very careful not to lump apples and oranges together in the meta-analysis. She must be selective and make sure to include only previous work that shared a very similar study design.</p>
<p>Here is where our simple and flexible generalized model aggregation method comes in. Using GMA, the prior studies do not necessarily need to have the same study design or method. They can also have different explanatory variables. As long as they are all answering a similar research question, GMA can synthesize them.</p>
<h2>Pooling findings from across a field</h2>
<p>Consider an example from the health literature. Obesity and nutrition researchers need reliable equations that estimate basal metabolic rate (BMR) – the amount of energy the human body spends at complete rest. Understanding BMR has big implications for real-world questions of weight management.</p>
<p>Researchers often estimate BMR as a function of different attributes: age, height, weight, fat mass and fat-free mass. The challenge is that current publications in research journals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2012.218">provide over 200 such equations</a> estimated for different samples and age groups. These equations also include different subsets of those attributes.</p>
<p>For example, one of these equations included weight and age, but another included only fat-free mass. Another equation considered the impact of all these attributes, but the sample size was too small to make it reliable. More interestingly, and confusingly, there have been several studies with similar samples and variables but they have reported very different equations to explain the relationships.</p>
<p>So which equations are you going to choose to accurately estimate BMR? How do you ensure that your selected equation is more reliable than the rest? </p>
<p>In order to address these questions, <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?type=supplementary&id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0175111.s001">we identified 27 published BMR equations</a> for white males from published studies. Then we used GMA to aggregate them into a single equation, which we called a meta-model.</p>
<p>Through validation tests, we showed that our meta-model is more precise than any of the prior equations for estimating BMR. It also can deal with a logarithmic relationship between two variables – something not captured by any of the original 27 linear equations.</p>
<p>We tested our method by putting it up against more complex situations. What if all the equations we aggregate using GMA are actually off the mark? Would GMA still get close to what is really going on?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164555/original/image-20170408-29386-lwhnmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164555/original/image-20170408-29386-lwhnmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164555/original/image-20170408-29386-lwhnmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164555/original/image-20170408-29386-lwhnmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164555/original/image-20170408-29386-lwhnmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164555/original/image-20170408-29386-lwhnmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164555/original/image-20170408-29386-lwhnmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164555/original/image-20170408-29386-lwhnmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The meta-model (on the right) relies only on reported information from the two incorrect models in the middle – not their observed data or the true data. And it is much closer to reality (on the left) than either incorrect model.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175111">Rahmandad et al, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175111</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To investigate, we imagined two researchers coming up with two different linear equations to describe what they did not realize is actually a nonlinear phenomenon. The findings of the two researchers are far from reality. But again, our meta-model provided an extremely close estimate of reality – even when aggregating these two incorrect and biased models.</p>
<h2>How GMA gets at the truth</h2>
<p>So how does it all work? There is no magic here. In fact, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalized_model_aggregation">intuition behind GMA is simple</a>, which lets researchers with no extensive statistical background use it. </p>
<p>Broadly, each previous empirical study is an attempt to estimate an underlying reality. Let’s call this the “true model.” And it is unknown to us; whatever is actually driving the phenomenon under investigation is nature’s secret. The empirical studies report relevant information about the true model, even if they are biased or incomplete. </p>
<p>Generalized model aggregation uses computer simulations to replicate prior studies. This time, though, the simulated studies attempt to estimate a meta-model instead of the true model (that is, reality). </p>
<p>We feed the empirical studies’ reported estimates into the simulation. The flexibility of the GMA allows us to also use any other additional information about the underlying true model, too – such as the relationships among the variables or the quality of empirical studies’ estimates. This extra information helps increase the reliability of GMA estimates.</p>
<p>The GMA algorithm carefully applies the same sample characteristics to each previous study and replicates their same method. Then it compares the outcomes of the simulated studies with the actual results of the empirical studies, trying to find the closest match. Through this matching process, GMA estimates the meta-model.</p>
<p>If the simulated and actual outputs match, the meta-model may be a good representation of the true model – that is, by running a bunch of studies through the GMA algorithm, we are able to tease out a closer approximation of how the phenomenon in question actually works. </p>
<h2>Wide range of applications for GMA</h2>
<p>In our paper, we <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175111">discussed a wide range of examples</a>, from health to climate change and environmental sciences, that can benefit from generalized model aggregation. Using GMA to synthesize prior findings into a coherent meta-model can increase the accuracy of aggregation. </p>
<p>In the current replicability crisis, GMA can help not only identify studies that are reproducible, but also distinguish reliable findings from less robust ones. </p>
<p>We reported <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0175111#pone.0175111.s001">all the steps of our analysis</a> for further replication. A recipe for using GMA and its codes, along with instructions, is also <a href="http://jalali.mit.edu/gma">publicly available</a>.</p>
<p>We hope that GMA can extend the reach of current research synthesis efforts to many new problems. GMA can help us understand the bigger picture of phenomena by aggregating their parts. Consider a puzzle with its pieces scattered about; the overall picture is revealed only when the pieces have been put together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75742/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mohammad S. Jalali does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Researchers need to be able to draw conclusions based on previously published studies in their field. A new aggregation method synthesizes prior findings and may help reveal more of the big picture.Mohammad S. Jalali, Research Faculty, MIT Sloan School of ManagementLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/730402017-03-08T03:08:21Z2017-03-08T03:08:21ZScientific theories aren’t mere conjecture – to survive they must work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159794/original/image-20170307-14951-ks286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There wouldn't be statues acclaiming Darwin and his theory if it couldn't stand up to decades of testing.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cgpgrey/4896956109">CGP Grey</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“The <a href="https://www.aps.org/policy/statements/07_1.cfm">evidence is incontrovertible</a>. Global warming is occurring.” “<a href="https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/policy/publicpolicies/sustainability/globalclimatechange.html">Climate change is real</a>, is serious and has been influenced by anthropogenic activity.” “The <a href="https://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-reaffirms-statements-climate-change-and-integrity">scientific evidence is clear</a>: Global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and is a growing threat to society.” </p>
<p>As these scientific societies’ position statements reflect, there is a <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/">clear scientific consensus</a> on the reality of climate change. But although <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/190010/concern-global-warming-eight-year-high.aspx?g_source=CATEGORY_CLIMATE_CHANGE&g_medium=topic&g_campaign=tiles">public acceptance of climate theory is improving</a>, many of our elected leaders <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/most-americans-disagree-with-their-congressional-representative-on-climate-change-95dc0eee7b8f#.c83f2lvw6">still express skepticism</a> about the science. The theory of evolution also shows a mismatch: Whereas there is virtually <a href="https://nihrecord.nih.gov/newsletters/2006/07_28_2006/story03.htm">universal agreement among scientists</a> about the validity of the theory, <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/views-about-human-evolution/">only 33 percent of the public</a> accepts it in full. For both climate change and evolution, skeptics sometimes sow doubt by saying that it is just a “theory.”</p>
<p>How does a scientific theory gain widespread acceptance in the scientific community? Why should the public and elected officials be expected to accept something that is “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/science/in-science-its-never-just-a-theory.html">only a theory</a>”? And how can we know if the science behind a particular theory is “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/full-text-of-obamas-2014-state-of-the-union-address/2014/01/28/e0c93358-887f-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html">settled</a>,” anyway? </p>
<h2>Does the theory deliver?</h2>
<p>In science, there are successful theories and unsuccessful theories. The word “theory” has nothing to do with the validity of a scientific principle or lack thereof. In contrast to general parlance where a theory “<a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/theory?r=75&src=ref&ch=dic">is a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural</a>,” a scientific theory is only conjectural until it is tested experimentally. </p>
<p>The issue is not whether a scientific theory is settled, but rather whether it works. Any successful scientific theory must be predictive and falsifiable; that is, it must successfully predict outcomes of controlled experiments or observations, and it must survive tests that could disprove the theory.</p>
<p>A scientist advocating a particular theory must propose an experiment and use her theory to predict the results of that experiment. If the experimental results are inconsistent with her predictions, then she must admit that her theory is wrong. To gain acceptance for a theory, a scientist must be willing to subject it to a falsifiable test.</p>
<p>If an experiment produces results that are consistent with a scientist’s predictions, then that’s good news for her theory. Just one successful test, though, is not usually enough. And the more controversial a theory is, the more experimental verification is required. As Carl Sagan said, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPjA_9htc-8">Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence</a>.”</p>
<p>Wide acceptance comes from repeated, different experiments by different research groups. There is no threshold or tipping point at which a theory becomes “settled.” And there is never 100 percent certainty. However, near-unanimous acceptance by the scientific community simply doesn’t occur unless the evidence is overwhelming.</p>
<h2>Scientific theories are repeatedly put to the test</h2>
<p>As an example, in 1905, Albert Einstein published <a href="http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol2-trans/154">two</a> <a href="http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol2-trans/186">papers</a> on what we now call the Special Theory of Relativity. In these papers, he made a series of arguments that dramatically altered our notions of how the universe works. He argued that different observers measure the passage of time differently; they also measure different lengths for moving objects. He also showed that matter and energy are different forms of the same thing and theoretically can be converted into each other.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HOeGVrm8ZFE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A computer simulation shows the collision of two black holes. It was created by solving equations from Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity using data collected more than 100 years later.</span></figcaption>
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<p>But Einstein didn’t just make these statements. His theory made detailed, quantitative and falsifiable predictions that could be tested experimentally. Einstein was prepared to drop the entire theory if even one experiment convincingly contradicted his predictions. It took a long time for many of these predictions to be tested. In fact, the <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/the-black-hole-collision-that-reshaped-physics-1.19612">first direct measurements of gravity waves</a> – <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-when-ligo-texts-you-to-say-its-detected-one-of-einsteins-predicted-gravitational-waves-53259">one of Einstein’s predictions</a> – came just last year. </p>
<p>Every single confirmed experimental test of relativity has agreed (<a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/02/faster-than-light-neutrino-measurement-has-two-possible-errors.html">eventually</a>) with Einstein’s predictions. And relativistic theory has also been used as the basis for several technological advances, including <a href="http://physicscentral.com/explore/writers/will.cfm">GPS satellites</a>, <a href="https://nuclear-energy.net/what-is-nuclear-energy/history">nuclear power</a> and (unfortunately) <a href="http://www.einstein-online.info/spotlights/atombombe">nuclear bombs</a>. There is absolutely no doubt among anyone in the physics community about the validity of the Theory of Relativity. </p>
<p>For an example of an unsuccessful theory, consider the announcement in March 1989 of a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0022-0728(89)80006-3">mechanism for nuclear fusion in a table-top configuration</a>. This discovery of “cold fusion” was met with tremendous excitement since cost-effective nuclear fusion could hold the key to society’s future power needs. But <a href="http://undsci.berkeley.edu/lessons/pdfs/cold_fusion.pdf">follow-up experiments</a> by other scientific groups had results that disagreed with the cold fusion theory. Despite the initial excitement, there was near-unanimous consensus in the scientific community by the end of 1989 that the <a href="http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/science/050399sci-cold-fusion.html">cold fusion theory was incorrect</a>. When the evidence isn’t there, the theory won’t hold up.</p>
<p>Like relativity, the <a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/">Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection</a> has been tested extensively. The <a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence">body of experimental data</a> that supports evolution is overwhelming. Of course, the fossil record supporting evolution is impressive and complete. But evolution has also been <a href="http://www.nature.com/subjects/bacterial-evolution">tested in real time with populations of organisms</a> that can mutate and <a href="http://www.mothscount.org/text/63/peppered_moth_and_natural_selection.html">evolve over measurable time scales</a>.</p>
<p>Evolution has been subjected to many falsifiable tests and has emerged unscathed in every one. Yes, evolution is a “theory” – it is a theory that works and works very well, an overwhelmingly successful and correct theory.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158183/original/image-20170223-32726-1plrc0r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158183/original/image-20170223-32726-1plrc0r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158183/original/image-20170223-32726-1plrc0r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158183/original/image-20170223-32726-1plrc0r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158183/original/image-20170223-32726-1plrc0r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158183/original/image-20170223-32726-1plrc0r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158183/original/image-20170223-32726-1plrc0r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158183/original/image-20170223-32726-1plrc0r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures. Although they fluctuate from year to year, average global temperatures have been rising for decades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/">NASA/GISS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Scientific agreement, political controversy</h2>
<p>Theories of climate change are also supported by an extensive body of evidence. Of course there’s the <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/">continuing upward drift of global average temperatures</a> over the past few decades. But climate change models are also supported by numerous laboratory experiments that have provided compelling verification of the <a href="http://history.aip.org/climate/co2.htm">mechanisms</a> by which <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/grnhse.html">carbon dioxide gas traps heat</a> in our planet’s atmosphere.</p>
<p>And, crucially, theories of global warming have passed falsifiability tests. Quantitative <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/239023a0">predictions of global warming</a> were <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1975)032%3C0003:TEODTC%3E2.0.CO;2">first made</a> in the 1970s. Had there not been a clear increase in average global temperatures since then, climate scientists would have been forced to admit that climate change theory was wrong. In fact, several scientists in the 1960s who had predicted global cooling later had to admit that <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.190.4216.741">their theory was incorrect</a>. Even a <a href="https://theconversation.com/improved-data-set-shows-no-global-warming-hiatus-42807">supposed pause in the increases</a> in the 2000s (which were exaggerated by a spike in the average global temperature in 1998) has been followed by a strong upward trend during the past three years. </p>
<p>Tellingly, skeptics of both evolution and climate change theory have been unwilling or unable to subject their arguments to the same rigorous testing undergone by the very theories they’re criticizing. To make a scientific argument, critics must propose an experiment or measurement that can distinguish their alternative theory from evolutionary and climate change theories, and they must make a specific prediction for its outcome. And, like the scientists they’re criticizing, they must be willing to admit they are wrong if the results disagree with their prediction. Absent any falsifiable tests, why should the public or our elected officials believe their counterarguments?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159799/original/image-20170307-14973-tnqs5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159799/original/image-20170307-14973-tnqs5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159799/original/image-20170307-14973-tnqs5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159799/original/image-20170307-14973-tnqs5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159799/original/image-20170307-14973-tnqs5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159799/original/image-20170307-14973-tnqs5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159799/original/image-20170307-14973-tnqs5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159799/original/image-20170307-14973-tnqs5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists continue to test hypotheses to see if a theory can withstand anything they throw at it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave">Matt Heintze/Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These issues are important from more than just a purely scientific perspective. An understanding of evolution is critical for developing any valid strategy for combating the spread of diseases, especially since microbes responsible for diseases can mutate so rapidly. And an understanding and acceptance of climate change theory is critical if we are to take the necessary steps to avoid potential catastrophe from a continuation of the global warming trend. </p>
<p>Scientific theories aren’t mere conjecture. They are subject to exhaustive, falsifiable tests. Some theories fail these tests and are jettisoned. But many theories are successful in the face of these tests. It is these theories – the ones that work – that achieve consensus in the scientific community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73040/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Solomon receives funding from the National Science Foundation.. </span></em></p>In science, the word ‘theory’ has a very specific meaning that’s easy for nonscientists to misunderstand or misconstrue. Here’s what a theory must withstand to be accepted by the scientific community.Tom Solomon, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Bucknell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.