[MaxBarraclough]

I've read of a few cases like this on Hacker News. There's often that assumption, sometimes unstated: if a junior scientist discovers clear evidence of academic misconduct by a senior scientist, it would be career suicide for the junior scientist to make their discovery public.

The replication crisis is largely particular to psychology, but I wonder about the scope of the don't rock the boat issue.

[mike_hearn]

It's not particular to psychology, the modern discussion of it just happened to start there. It affects all fields and is more like a validity crisis than a replication crisis.

https://blog.plan99.net/replication-studies-cant-fix-science...

[renewiltord]

He’s not saying it’s Psychology the field. He’s saying replication crisis may be because junior scientist (most often involved in replication) is afraid of retribution: it’s psychological reason for fraud persistence.

I think perhaps blackball is guaranteed. No one likes a snitch. “We’re all just here to do work and get paid. He’s just doing what they make us do”. Scientist is just job. Most people are just “I put thing in tube. Make money by telling government about tube thing. No need to be religious about Science”.

[MaxBarraclough]

I see my phrasing was ambiguous, for what it's worth I'm afraid mike_hearn had it right, I was saying the replication crisis largely just affects research in psychology. I see this was too narrow, but I think it's fair to say psychology is likely the most affected field.

In terms of solutions, the practice of 'preregistration' seems like a move in the right direction.