Björn Brembs
@brembs@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 4 weeks ago

The killer quote! Prestigious institutions and prestigious journals drive irreproducibility in the life sciences - well, at least in this particular sample.

biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

Previous work has suggested journal rank as a major associate of irreproducibility (Brembs et al., 2013), and that high-impact journals favour authors from leading institutions (Kulal et al., 2025). Our study highlights how university ranking is among the most striking correlates of irreproducibility. Taken together, the cause and effect relationship at play here may be driven most by factors associated with institutional prestige, such as trust among networks of colleagues that act as editors and reviewers, leading to greater acceptance rates at high-impact journals. Importantly, our results suggest this greater acceptance does not strictly reflect a high quality of the work being published, but rather a willingness to trust irreproducible work more frequently if it comes from a prestigious institute.
Previous work has suggested journal rank as a major associate of irreproducibility (Brembs et al., 2013), and that high-impact journals favour authors from leading institutions (Kulal et al., 2025). Our study highlights how university ranking is among the most striking correlates of irreproducibility. Taken together, the cause and effect relationship at play here may be driven most by factors associated with institutional prestige, such as trust among networks of colleagues that act as editors and reviewers, leading to greater acceptance rates at high-impact journals. Importantly, our results suggest this greater acceptance does not strictly reflect a high quality of the work being published, but rather a willingness to trust irreproducible work more frequently if it comes from a prestigious institute.
Previous work has suggested journal rank as a major associate of irreproducibility (Brembs et al., 2013), and that high-impact journals favour authors from leading institutions (Kulal et al., 2025). Our study highlights how university ranking is among the most striking correlates of irreproducibility. Taken together, the cause and effect relationship at play here may be driven most by factors associated with institutional prestige, such as trust among networks of colleagues that act as editors and reviewers, leading to greater acceptance rates at high-impact journals. Importantly, our results suggest this greater acceptance does not strictly reflect a high quality of the work being published, but rather a willingness to trust irreproducible work more frequently if it comes from a prestigious institute.
Björn Brembs
@brembs@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 4 weeks ago

@tillgrallert

Yes, isn't it?

As the authors cite in the article, it confirms and extends what we already know. It's part of what the EU science ministers call "the hazards of scholarly publishing":

consilium.europa.eu/en/press/p