Trends for 2018
Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 7:27 amThere are quite a few articles talking about trends in interior decor, fashion, web design etc. This is for research and thinking trends. It doesn't have to be for next year specifically, since research takes a few years to get going. What are the good and bad trends that you notice in your field?
Here are some:
1) Statistical Skepticism: For too long in the life-sciences, the biologists have thrown ANOVA tables at everything. People are going to start (rightly) questioning this use of that table, especially in field studies where sample sizes can't be controlled.
2) Research Humility: A good example of this is the whole wheat bread debate. Some scientists legitimately believe that whole wheat bread is no better or actually worse for you. They do this by comparing certain things that they can measure after people eat bread. Research humility would be acknowledging that there are still things we can't measure. This trend has been a long time coming (Lindley wrote The End of Physics in 1994, Horgan wrote The End of Science in 1996, for more recent examples, see Stannard The End of Discovery [2010] or this article)
3) China: It seems they are finally cracking down on the crap. Basically, the country values personal achievement over everything so publishing for them is a matter of life-or-death. It's no surprise that over 50% of all research from China is fabricated and eventually retracted.
4) ArXiv for Life Sciences: This will probably never happen but it's my number one wishlist (yes, I know there is a biostats section). I was surprised to learn this year that most published math journal articles have errors. To see the comments on those errors and the correction, you need to go to the arXiv anyway, so I'm not quite sure why there are still mathematical journals.
Outside of my field:
1) Linguistic Turn 2.0: Words don't create Platonic ideals (original linguistic turn), they don't describe platonic ideals (classic philosophy) rather they are ideals in and of themselves. Basically, a conception of reality that allows for those of us who perceive the world through language instead of through whatever else the rest of you use.
Here are some:
1) Statistical Skepticism: For too long in the life-sciences, the biologists have thrown ANOVA tables at everything. People are going to start (rightly) questioning this use of that table, especially in field studies where sample sizes can't be controlled.
2) Research Humility: A good example of this is the whole wheat bread debate. Some scientists legitimately believe that whole wheat bread is no better or actually worse for you. They do this by comparing certain things that they can measure after people eat bread. Research humility would be acknowledging that there are still things we can't measure. This trend has been a long time coming (Lindley wrote The End of Physics in 1994, Horgan wrote The End of Science in 1996, for more recent examples, see Stannard The End of Discovery [2010] or this article)
3) China: It seems they are finally cracking down on the crap. Basically, the country values personal achievement over everything so publishing for them is a matter of life-or-death. It's no surprise that over 50% of all research from China is fabricated and eventually retracted.
4) ArXiv for Life Sciences: This will probably never happen but it's my number one wishlist (yes, I know there is a biostats section). I was surprised to learn this year that most published math journal articles have errors. To see the comments on those errors and the correction, you need to go to the arXiv anyway, so I'm not quite sure why there are still mathematical journals.
Outside of my field:
1) Linguistic Turn 2.0: Words don't create Platonic ideals (original linguistic turn), they don't describe platonic ideals (classic philosophy) rather they are ideals in and of themselves. Basically, a conception of reality that allows for those of us who perceive the world through language instead of through whatever else the rest of you use.
