Identifying and overcoming threats to reproducibility, replicability, robustness, and generalizability in microbiology research

About this Class

Speaker: Patrick D. Schloss, PhD Frederick G. Novy Collegiate Professor of Microbiome Research Department of Microbiology & Immunology University of Michigan Medical School Abstract: The “reproducibility crisis” in science affects microbiology as much as any other area of inquiry, and microbiologists have long struggled to make their research reproducible. Schloss recently delineated a framework for identifying and overcoming threats to reproducibility, replicability, robustness, and generalizability of microbiome research that is broadly applicable to other areas of microbiology. There are many reasons why a researcher is unable to reproduce a previous result, and even if a result is reproducible, it may not be correct. Furthermore, failures to reproduce previous results have much to teach us about the scientific process and microbial life itself. To help safeguard against threats to reproducibility, Schloss developed the Riffomonas Reproducible Research tutorial series. This is a collection of tutorials that focuses on the improvement of reproducible data analysis for those doing microbial ecology research. Although the materials focus on issues in microbial ecology, the principles are broadly applicable. Each tutorial presents broad concepts and how they are related to reproducibility as well as applied practice using specific tools that are designed to foster reproducibility. Instead of seeing signs of a crisis in others’ work, we need to appreciate the technical and social difficulties that limit reproducibility in the work of others as well as our own. Join ZoomGov Meeting https://nih.zoomgov.com/j/1617561452?pwd=bE5YOVgrL2tHbFZidUJQOWZzdGlpZz09 Meeting ID: 161 756 1452 Passcode: 586729 One tap mobile +16692545252,,1617561452#,,,,*586729# US (San Jose) +16468287666,,1617561452#,,,,*586729# US (New York)