What Scientists Think About Scientific Thinking

This chapter reports original data from two surveys conducted to find out how scientists view the hypothesis and related concepts. One was an online survey of hundreds of members of biological research societies. The scientists reported on their knowledge of and training in the use of the hypothesis, their views about hypothesis testing as compared with other modes of conducting science, such as Discovery Science, open-ended questioning, and Big Data methods. Respondents estimated how the various scientific modes influenced their work and how much they relied on each one. Most respondents,70% of them, reported having received little or no training in scientific thinking; however, 90% felt confident about their thinking skills. Nevertheless, more than 90% felt that formal training in this area would be helpful. The great majority relied on hypotheses in their research work. The second survey, analyzed all (more than 150) neuroscience research papers that appeared sequentially in top journals during 2015 to determine how the papers were structured, particularly with respect to the hypothesis. Only 33% of the papers had an explicitly stated hypothesis, whereas, in 45%, the hypothesis was “implicit.” A minor, though notable, fraction of the papers misused the term “hypothesis.” The results are germane to several topics covered in the remainder of the book.