Editing Scientific method (section)

===Confirmation<!--Linked from [[Confirmation (disambiguation)]]-->===
{{Main|Reproducibility}}
Science is a social enterprise, and scientific work tends to be accepted by the scientific community when it has been confirmed. Crucially, experimental and theoretical results must be reproduced by others within the scientific community. Researchers have given their lives for this vision; [[Georg Wilhelm Richmann]] was killed by [[ball lightning]] (1753) when attempting to replicate the 1752 kite-flying experiment of [[Benjamin Franklin]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Krider |first=E. Philip |date=Jan 2006 |title=Benjamin Franklin and lightning rods |journal=Physics Today |volume=59 |issue=1 |page=42 |doi=10.1063/1.2180176 |bibcode=2006PhT....59a..42K |s2cid=110623159 |quote=On 6 August 1753, the Swedish scientist Georg Wilhelm Richmann was electrocuted in St. Petersburg ...|doi-access=free }}</ref>

{{anchor|Evaluation and improvement}}If an experiment cannot be [[Reproducibility|repeated]] to produce the same results, this implies that the original results might have been in error. As a result, it is common for a single experiment to be performed multiple times, especially when there are uncontrolled variables or other indications of [[Observational error|experimental error]]. For significant or surprising results, other scientists may also attempt to replicate the results for themselves, especially if those results would be important to their own work.<ref>{{cite web |title=Reconstruction of Galileo Galilei's experiment – the inclined plane |url=http://www.fyysika.ee/vorgustik/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Reconstruction-of-Galileo-Galilei.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429075745/http://www.fyysika.ee/vorgustik/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Reconstruction-of-Galileo-Galilei.pdf |archive-date=2014-04-29 |access-date=2014-04-28}}</ref> Replication has become a contentious issue in social and biomedical science where treatments are administered to groups of individuals. Typically an ''experimental group'' gets the treatment, such as a drug, and the ''control group'' gets a placebo. [[John Ioannidis]] in 2005 pointed out that the method being used has led to many findings that cannot be replicated.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ioannidis |first=John P. A. |date=August 2005 |title=Why most published research findings are false |journal=[[PLOS Medicine]] |volume=2 |issue=8 |pages=e124 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124 |pmc=1182327 |pmid=16060722 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The process of [[peer review]] involves the evaluation of the experiment by experts, who typically give their opinions anonymously. Some journals request that the experimenter provide lists of possible peer reviewers, especially if the field is highly specialized. Peer review does not certify the correctness of the results, only that, in the opinion of the reviewer, the experiments themselves were sound (based on the description supplied by the experimenter). If the work passes peer review, which occasionally may require new experiments requested by the reviewers, it will be published in a peer-reviewed [[Academic journal|scientific journal]]. The specific journal that publishes the results indicates the perceived quality of the work.{{efn|In ''Two New Sciences'', there are three 'reviewers': Simplicio, Sagredo, and Salviati, who serve as foil, antagonist, and protagonist. Galileo speaks for himself only briefly. But Einstein's 1905 papers were not peer-reviewed before their publication.}}

Scientists typically are careful in recording their data, a requirement promoted by [[Ludwik Fleck]] (1896–1961) and others.{{sfnp|Fleck|1979|pp=xxvii–xxviii}} Though not typically required, they might be requested to [[Data sharing|supply this data]] to other scientists who wish to replicate their original results (or parts of their original results), extending to the sharing of any experimental samples that may be difficult to obtain.<ref>"[http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/index.htm NIH Data Sharing Policy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513171213/http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/index.htm|date=2012-05-13}}."</ref> To protect against bad science and fraudulent data, government research-granting agencies such as the [[National Science Foundation]], and science journals, including ''Nature'' and ''Science'', have a policy that researchers must archive their data and methods so that other researchers can test the data and methods and build on the research that has gone before. [[Scientific data archiving]] can be done at several national archives in the U.S. or the [[World Data Center]].