University of New Mexico, United States.
Human Ecology, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV), Merida, Mexico.
Methods. 2021 Nov;195:113-119. doi: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2021.09.001. Epub 2021 Sep 4.
The protracted COVID 19 pandemic may indicate failures of scientific methodologies. Hoping to facilitate the evaluation and/or update of methods relevant in Biomedicine, several aspects of scientific processes are here explored. First, the background is reviewed. In particular, eight topics are analyzed: (i) the history of Higher Education models in reference to the pursuit of science and the type of student cognition pursued, (ii) whether explanatory or actionable knowledge is emphasized depending on the well- or ill-defined nature of problems, (iii) the role of complexity and dynamics, (iv) how differences between Biology and other fields influence methodologies, (v) whether theory, hypotheses or data drive scientific research, (vi) whether Biology is reducible to one or a few factors, (vii) the fact that data, to become actionable knowledge, require structuring, and (viii) the need of inter-/trans-disciplinary knowledge integration. To illustrate how these topics interact, a second section describes four temporal stages of scientific methods: conceptualization, operationalization, validation and evaluation. They refer to the transition from abstract (non-measurable) concepts (such as 'health') to the selection of concrete (measurable) operations (such as 'quantification of ́anti-virus specific antibody titers'). Conceptualization is the process that selects concepts worth investigating, which continues as operationalization when data-producing variables viewed to reflect critical features of the concepts are chosen. Because the operations selected are not necessarily valid, informative, and may fail to solve problems, validations and evaluations are critical stages, which require inter/trans-disciplinary knowledge integration. It is suggested that data structuring can substantially improve scientific methodologies applicable in Biology, provided that other aspects here mentioned are also considered. The creation of independent bodies meant to evaluate biologically oriented scientific methods is recommended.
漫长的 COVID-19 大流行可能表明科学方法存在失败。为了促进生物医学相关方法的评估和/或更新，本文探索了科学过程的几个方面。首先，回顾了背景。特别是，分析了八个主题：（i）参照科学追求的高等教育模式的历史以及所追求的学生认知类型，（ii）根据问题的明确定义或不明确定义性质，强调解释性或可操作性知识，（iii）复杂性和动态性的作用，（iv）生物学与其他领域之间的差异如何影响方法，（v）理论、假设还是数据驱动科学研究，（vi）生物学是否可以简化为一个或几个因素，（vii）数据要成为可操作的知识，需要进行结构化处理，以及（viii）需要跨学科/跨学科知识整合。为了说明这些主题如何相互作用，第二部分描述了科学方法的四个时间阶段：概念化、操作化、验证和评估。它们指的是从抽象（不可测量）概念（如“健康”）到具体（可测量）操作（如“量化抗病毒特异性抗体滴度”）的转变。概念化是选择值得研究的概念的过程，当选择被认为反映概念关键特征的数据产生变量时，它会继续作为操作化进行。由于选择的操作不一定有效、信息丰富，并且可能无法解决问题，因此验证和评估是关键阶段，需要跨学科/跨学科知识整合。建议数据结构化可以大大改进生物学中适用的科学方法，前提是还考虑了本文提到的其他方面。建议创建独立机构来评估以生物学为导向的科学方法。
