[Excerpts taken from the article “Trouble replicating cancer studies a ‘wake-up call’ for science” by Jack Groves, published at timeshighereducation.com]

“Later this year, the Virginia-based Center for Open Science will publish the final two papers of an initiative launched in 2013 with the aim of replicating experiments from 50 high-impact cancer biology papers.”

“Many replication efforts were dropped, however, as the organisers realised that they needed more information from the original authors because vital methodological instructions had not been included in published papers. Frequently such details – as well as required materials – proved difficult to obtain, often owing to a lack of cooperation from the laboratories.”

“Subsequent delays and cost increases meant that just 18 papers covering 52 separate experiments, out of an initial 192 experiments targeted, were eventually replicated.”

“The forthcoming papers in the replication study – one detailing the results of all 18 replicated papers, one on why so few were completed – were likely to be a “wake-up call” to science “given that so much information is missing” from published papers, according to Brian Nosek, the centre’s director and co-founder, who is also professor of psychology at the University of Virginia.”

To read the article, click here.