> Let me add that I'm doing geochemical work for my Ph.D. research. My
>dissertation will have an entire section devoted to analytical procedures
>and sample preparation. Why? Because your analytical results are worthless
>if you don't take care in how you collect, prepare, and analyze your samples.
>Any graduate student doing work like Burdick or Howe, et al., would fail their
>dissertation defense and not receive a degree (at least not at the schools
>I've attended).
Confession time. One of the frustrating aspects of some of the technical
literature in my field (control engineering) is that not enough attention
is given to documenting experimental methodology, and this makes it hard to
replicate other people's work. I had that driven home rather forcefully
several years ago when I read a paper from Chris Colby which was based on
his thesis research in evolutionary biology. It was not easy reading,
since I'm not accomplished in interpreting chromatograph traces (I assume
that's what they were), but I read it several times and felt I understood
it about as well as I could without spending major time reading more of the
literature in the field. One aspect of the work that really impressed me
was how painstakingly Chris had documented his experimental methodology,
and I remarked on that to him. His response was, "Well, what else would
you expect me to do. It's no good if someone else can't check my results."
Even when it's published in a refereed journal, a paper can contain errors
or even be dead wrong. But careful, properly documented experimental
methodology makes it possible for others to catch your mistakes, and serves
as an incentive to researchers to be responsible in their methodology and
their reasoning.
Aside: I'm not saying the control engineering literature is useless. I've
replicated results I wanted to use in my work, so it can be done. I would
just have a higher opinion of the journals and the researchers if they gave
more attention to this issue.
Bill Hamilton | Chassis & Vehicle Systems
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