| I mean, the failure of a lot of experiments to replicate is extraordinarily well documented... Not to mention the corollaries from the Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Most_Published_Research_Fi...): "In addition to the main result, Ioannidis lists six corollaries for factors that can influence the reliability of published research. Research findings in a scientific field are less likely to be true, 1. the smaller the studies conducted. 2. the smaller the effect sizes. 3. the greater the number and the lesser the selection of tested relationships. 4. the greater the flexibility in designs, definitions, outcomes, and analytical modes. 5. the greater the financial and other interests and prejudices. 6. the hotter the scientific field (with more scientific teams involved)." These are all reasonable criticisms from my own area of expertise: applied econometrics. |
I won't speak for all textbooks, but generally stuff you find in there should not be the same as what you find in journals, and is much more settled. Big caveat that that isn't necessarily true for younger sciences without long-established theory, say exercise physiology or social psychology, but something like a chemistry textbook is pretty damn trustworthy.
And those are what people who aren't actually scientists should mostly be educating themselves with, not newspaper science reporting sections.