W.K. Kellogg Biological Station Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI 49060, USA.
Environ Microbiol. 2011 Jun;13(6):1383-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02445.x. Epub 2011 Mar 9.
A recent analysis revealed that most environmental microbiologists neglect replication in their science (Prosser, 2010). Of all peer-reviewed papers published during 2009 in the field's leading journals, slightly more than 70% lacked replication when it came to analyzing microbial community data. The paucity of replication is viewed as an 'endemic' and 'embarrassing' problem that amounts to 'bad science', or worse yet, as the title suggests, lying (Prosser, 2010). Although replication is an important component of experimental design, it is possible to do good science without replication. There are various quantitative techniques - some old, some new - that, when used properly, will allow environmental microbiologists to make strong statistical conclusions from experimental and comparative data. Here, I provide examples where unreplicated data can be used to test hypotheses and yield novel information in a statistically robust manner.
最近的一项分析表明，大多数环境微生物学家在他们的科学研究中忽略了复制（Prosser，2010）。在 2009 年发表在该领域领先期刊上的所有同行评议论文中，当涉及到分析微生物群落数据时，略多于 70%的论文缺乏复制。复制的缺乏被视为一种“流行”和“尴尬”的问题，相当于“糟糕的科学”，或者更糟糕的是，正如标题所示，是在撒谎（Prosser，2010）。尽管复制是实验设计的一个重要组成部分，但没有复制也可以进行好的科学研究。有各种定量技术——有些是旧的，有些是新的——如果正确使用，将使环境微生物学家能够从实验和比较数据中得出强有力的统计结论。在这里，我提供了一些例子，说明未复制的数据可以用于以统计上稳健的方式检验假设并产生新的信息。
