Reproducibility of Research in Biophysics

Abstract

New advances in science invariably rest on the foundation of previous work and, therefore, the reliability of published work is fundamental to the scientific enterprise. Consequently, research should be well designed, rigorously analyzed, and reproducible.In response to a number of high profile cases in which published data could not be reproduced, as well as a mandate from the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) leadership has moved to address the issue of research reproducibility (1xPolicy: NIH plans to enhance reproducibility. Collins, F.S. and Tabak, L.A. Nature. 2014; 505: 612–613Crossref | PubMed | Scopus (205)See all References1). Toward this end, the NIH, together with the editors of Science and Nature, convened a meeting of scientific journal editors, including the editor of the Biophysical Journal (BJ), in June of 2014 to address the issue. As a follow-up to the meeting, in November of 2014 the NIH released Principles and Guidelines for Reporting Preclinical Research (http://www.nih.gov/about/reporting-preclinical-research.htm) and requested that publishers sign on to the document.The Biophysical Society (BPS), publisher of BJ, agrees wholeheartedly with the intent of the guidelines—to encourage reproducible, robust, and transparent research. However, in their specifics, these guidelines are primarily directed at large correlative statistical preclinical and clinical studies and are not pertinent or applicable to the types of science published by BJ. Therefore, BJ, along with several other basic science journals, did not sign on to the document.Basic and applied sciences in general, and biophysics in particular, can require the use of diverse, highly specialized research instrumentation and techniques along with complex customized computational analysis. The diversity of the research methods and the types of data that are produced requires a flexible approach to the important issues of reproducibility of scientific results, transparency, and data sharing. BJ, through its Biophysical Journal Author Guidelines, has already established requirements in support of transparency, rigor, and data sharing that also take into account the need for flexibility based on specific research areas. To ensure the continued health of the field in the face of changes in how biophysicists generate and analyze data, the BPS and BJ have updated those guidelines and will work with the biophysical community so that these guidelines reflect the specific needs of the different research areas. As research and techniques evolve, so too will the guidelines. The two basic principles that these Guidelines for the Reproducibility of Biophysics Research (http://www.cell.com/biophysj/authors) will strive to ensure are:1.Research results should be reported with sufficient detail to enable replication of the study in other laboratories (using supporting information as necessary); and2.Data or material produced in a published study should be readily disseminated and openly accessible whenever feasible (either as supporting information or through the author’s website and laboratory).BPS and BJ welcome this opportunity to help craft reproducibility guidelines that are both realistic and appropriate for the basic and applied research community, and will work with the various biophysics communities to establish appropriate data-sharing standards for each.