Is the replication crisis in science fake news?

Science publishing is in crisis. And it’s not only the replication of research which is affected. With over 10 billion dollars per year flowing into the science publishing industry in publication fees alone, to say that selectivity costs would be a major understatement. But this is science, a veritable club of skeptics. It’s a discipline that values truth and accuracy in a world where, if you’ll pardon the expression, these elements are anything but naturally occurring.

At this point it would be right to question what 10 billion dollars per year gets you. Well, this amount of money, which could rival the GDP of a small island nation, gets some research published but not all research. Crucially, replication studies and negative data rarely make it to publication. The very research which is needed to end the replication crisis. And just to be clear: this amount of money is what researchers pay to have their research published in journals on an annual basis. There is still the 25 billion dollars per year which universities and research institutions pay in subscription fees too access this research paywalls. In the end, the process from submission to publication is like a mystical rite which only a select few may complete in the “publish-or-perish” world of academia.

Enter open access.

Open access journals like ScienceMatters have benefited research institutions and researchers alike by allowing anyone to access to published research online. While these journals may publish research at much lower prices than traditional journals behind paywalls, truly open science requires a change from everyone involved in the research cycle.

Open science must go further than open access to solve problems in the science publishing industry like the replication crisis. Blockchain technology offers solutions to these problems because research, in the form of data on the blockchain, can be recorded in an immutable, transparent and decentralized way. A further benefit of this technology is that review and editing can now be completed in a crowd-sourced environment driven by a token reward system. EUREKA is the first enterprise which builds on an existing publishing infrastructure and uses blockchain technology for the benefit of open science. EUREKA revolutionizes the scientific publishing and reviewing process by making it more efficient and fair in compensating all parties involved in the research cycle. As part of the rating service, scientific discoveries can now be openly rated and rewarded based on the quality of the research.

Most scientists don’t intend to publish irreplaceable research. Scientists and the science publishing industry must implement emerging technologies to solve this crisis. The advent of social media and Web 2.0 resulted in the phenomenon of fake news. Using technology to improve the way we access and disseminate information will always have its pitfalls. But we should not let our skepticism, however natural and necessary this characteristic is, cloud our judgement about looking for working solutions to real problems.