Next steps after airing disagreement on a scientific issue with policy implications: a meta-analysis, multi-lab replication and adversarial collaboration

• Published in: BMC Biology
• Main Authors: Shinichi Nakagawa, Malgorzata Lagisz
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2023
• Subjects: Replication crisis; Null hypothesis significance testing; Statistics; Team science; Open science; Reproducibility; Biology (General); QH301-705.5; Pacific; Sockeye; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01567-5; https://doaj.org/article/d1ec7ecdb52843a0bc80f5e18578549f

Abstract Canadian policymakers are interested in determining whether farmed Atlantic salmon, frequently infected with Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV), may threaten wild salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest. A relevant work has been published in BMC Biology by Polinksi and colleagues, but their conclusion that PRV has a negligible impact on the energy expenditure and respiratory performance of sockeye salmon is disputed by Mordecai and colleagues, whose re-analysis is presented in a correspondence article. So, what is the true effect and what should follow this unresolved dispute? We suggest a ‘registered multi-lab replication with adversaries’.