When I was introduced to the term “metascience” a few years ago, admittedly I had no idea what it meant. I have since come to understand that metascience is the study of science itself: how we structure, fund, and conduct science. It’s the belief that no system is precious enough to not improve and that especially for something as valuable as science we should be continually experimenting with the system to get more social return on investment for the dollars we spend.
This piece was fun to coauthor with
@calebwatney (and have edited by
@andrewmgerard) as my first written contribution in my new role at
@IFP. It lays out six different hypotheses about how science could be improved and examples of research and projects that test those hypotheses. Any one researcher might associate with 1 or more of these “camps” so could wear numerous “badges” as they explore.
This framework is important for policymakers in agencies, congress and the administration: if they are looking to take some of this advice to evolve science, they should be aware of the underlying premise behind each worldview and the types of evidence they generate.
I believe that the most robust policy solutions are ones that are not limited to any one worldview, but consider various perspectives in the proposed reform. This is also why I think it’s important to collaborate within and across camps, to openly debate, and for iron to sharpen iron for the strongest research and development enterprise possible. Would welcome your thoughts on the map as well as any metascience questions you think are the most important to address.
open.substack.com/pub/macros…