Funders’ incentives fuel reproducibility crisis

A mismatch between researchers’ motivations and the progress of science as a whole are behind the reproducibility crisis threatening some disciplines, a conference organised by the Natural Environment Research Council has heard.

Marcus Munafo, a professor of biological psychology at the University of Bristol, has shifted part of his time from studying addiction to investigating how to facilitate reproducibility of scientific studies.

At an event on 24 August attended by doctoral scientists funded by NERC, Munafo blamed funders for pushing researchers to maximise their publications at the expense of quality.