Less rushing = Better science
Doing good science is hard. There are many ways science can go wrong. Our studies are too small. We confuse correlation with causation. We are biased. Our hypotheses are not fairly tested. We overfit. We misunderstand the literature. Our data are not shared. And, arguably, much of this could be avoided with better study planning.
It seems that everyone feels overwhelmed by all of this. We have to find questions, decide on hypotheses, identify prior work, and even figure out an audience. It’s a lot. Instead of planning, many people just start by collecting data and hope that everything will come together into a nice paper in the end. But, arguably, this leads to both uglier papers and less rigorous science. Konrad Kording, C4R P.I.
