Couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure to sit down with Prof. John Ioannidis to talk about the role of data in science. Prof. Ioannidis is well know in his pursuit to uncover and fix issues with the modern scientific process.
Chris Gorgolewski (CG): You have a long journey in science behind you, and I was wondering how you thought about the role of data in science when you were entering grad school?
John Ioannidis (JI): I think that my exposure to data has changed over time, because the types of datasets and their content, clarity, their limitations, their documentation, their availability, their transparency, and their prowess to error has changed over time. I think by now I have worked in different fields that have different doses of these challenges. The types of data that I was working with when I was a medical student or just graduating are very different compared to what we have now. Some of the challenges are actually pretty new in terms of the magnitude, complexity, reasons why we collect data, how we do that, what is their half-life — and more. There are obviously some issues that have been there for scientific investigation since the very beginning, but there are others that change pretty rapidly in our times. Most of those add extra layers of complexity about data.
“Many people at some point realized that we need to share extensively, we need to collaborate, we need to join forces, otherwise we are not going to do anything serious.”
