By David Zhang
Meta research is a relatively new field of science, which aims to find ways to improve the accuracy and reliability of scientific experiments. It studies ways to reduce biases and develop more efficient processes for gathering and interpreting. Of course, this applies to all fields of research and not just science.
There are many reasons that experiments and research end up inaccurate. There will be always be biases, random errors or systematic errors. It is for this reason that scientists repeat experiments over and over again. Determining the efficiency and applicability of different study methods through meta research and improve the veracity the data and the conclusion. Much of it revolves around finding biases within the experiment. To be able to do this researchers must gather information not only on the subjects or materials but also on themselves, the people who are running the experiments.
Meta research will be difficult to implement as most scientists do not like their work to be challenged. Also, meta research promotes transparency, which is unappealing to some researchers. It will take time for it to be integrated into many different fields of research. However it has already shown to be effective in determining the accuracy of results and developing new methods of research.
This field of research is extremely important but has been mostly neglected by scientists. It is now becoming more prevalent as many conflicting results start showing up in experiments. Meta research hopes to minimize errors and help scientists acquire more accurate results to help humanity as a whole progress.
