These
numbers suggest that, however serious the problem
of insufficient numbers entering the physician -
scientist workforce, there's an even more important factor: The pipeline is broken, or at least leaking badly.
The causes
of such unpredictable results, Harris said, can include bad ingredients in the lab, including contaminated and misidentified cell lines; poor research design, including
insufficient numbers of mice in animal studies; statistical error and overreach, including «HARKing» (hypothesizing after the results are known), a push beyond the limits
of the data; and funding pressures, which can lead
scientists to hype or exaggerate their results to remain competitive for additional grant money.
Meanwhile, SRC calculates that the
number of recruitable researchers available to fill the coming vacancies, that is,
scientists on individual research grants and postdoctoral fellows — forskarassistent — on 4 - year research posts at a university, is
insufficient.