How do you know when a research study is reliable and evidence-based? And how can you tell the difference between shoddy research findings and those that have merit?  Unreliable scientific studies can be hard to spot – whether by reviewers or the general public – but by asking the right questions, it can be done.  Lisa Bero, PhD, has been studying bias in the design, conduct and publication of scientific research for 30 years, and has developed ways to prevent and detect research integrity problems so the best possible evidence can be synthesized and used for decisions about health.

Bero and colleagues recently published, Experts identified warning signs of fraudulent research: a qualitative study to inform a screening tool, in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, which found that it’s possible for researchers who review and synthesize evidence to create a checklist of warning signs, and use these warning signs to create a screening tool – a set of questions to ask about how a study is done and reported – that provides clues about whether a study is real or not.  Read article>>