Mistrust in scientific articles exacerbates researchers’ workloads

A lack of confidence in scientific findings seems to be increasing the workload of researchers, according to new analysis by Dutch publishing giant Elsevier and the independent UK-based charity Sense about Science. More than 60% of 3000 researchers surveyed in May and 1500 polled in March describe all or most of the research outputs they come across as trustworthy, while more than a third say they only view ‘about half’ or ‘some of them’ as trustworthy, and 1% had no confidence at all. Overall, 86% of the researchers rated at least some research outputs as untrustworthy, and the primary reasons cited were poor interpretation, lack of clarity of the peer review process and methodological flaws.