Letter from the President
It disheartens me to see a retraction of a highly prominent paper, such as Nature’s recent retraction of a machine learning study on the relationship of microbial communities with human cancer. Not only does this retraction impact public trust in science, but it has a substantial effect on the translational research community who have started using this approach to improve cancer diagnostics. Importantly, the retraction was prompted by discovery of methodological flaws in how the data was processed and filtered, undermined the study’s findings. As we as a translational science community transition towards a greater dependence on complex data sets in our work, this example raises the importance of methodologic replicability. How can we reduce these unfortunate occurrences? Best practices in team science offers a solution.
As a translational research community that is substantially impacted by events such as these, we all must work to improve transparency and replicability of our work to ensure methods reproducibility by minimizing detrimental research practices. Methods reproducibility is but one example of Detrimental Research Practices (DRPs) as articulated by the 2017 National Academies of Science Report on Fostering Integrity in Research. DRPs include, but are not limited to, failing to retaining research materials (data, analysis code), neglectful supervision, misleading statistical analyses, deficient institutional compliance, and irresponsible publication practices by editors or peer reviewers.
Institutional compliance measures do not effectively impact this problem. By contrast, we conducted an analysis of best practices of translational teams to identify those that reduce DRPs. This work identified team activities such as paying specific attention to data management – using accessible, transparent data management systems. Rigor in data management enables team members to more critically examine statistical approaches, codes and informatics pipelines. Establishing a culture of transparency and semi-independent replication will enable teams to catch these methodological flaws long before they are communicated to scientific journals.
Want to learn more? Consider joining us next April at TS25, “Integrating Data to Power Translation” to learn more about best practices in data science.
Allan Brasier, MD
ACTS President
Translational Science 2025 Call for Proposals: New Poster Deadline
In case you missed it: the deadline for the Translational Science 2025 Call for Poster Proposals has been extended to Monday, October 21. This means you have an extra month to submit your latest research to be presented at the premier meeting for translational science! Topics for submissions include biostatistics, health equity, data science and more.
The Call for Scientific Session Proposals is still set to close on Monday, September 23. Visit our website to view our submission requirements and share your proposal today!
Submit Your Proposal
ACTS TREATS SIG General Meeting with Douglas Luke, PhD
The Training Research Education Administrators in Translational Science Special Interest Group (TREATS SIG) invites you to attend their next general meeting on Thursday, September 19 at 2:00 pm ET. Special guest Douglas Luke, PhD will discuss the Translational Science Benefits Model and how researchers can use it to demonstrate outcomes beyond data points and journal publications.
Anyone interested in attending can register for the Zoom session using the link below. You can learn more about the TREATS SIG and our other Special Interest Groups by visiting our website.
Register
Special Interest Groups
ACTS offers its members the opportunity to participate in Special Interest Groups (SIGs) related to the field of clinical research and translational science. SIGs connect individuals who share similar goals and interests, providing a channel to network and participate in knowledge and resource sharing among peers.
Learning Center
The ACTS Learning Library is the centralized location for all ACTS educational offerings, including partner webinars and past Translational Science recordings. ACTS members receive complimentary access to webinars and recordings.
Translational Science Today
New AI-Driven Tool Could Revolutionize Brain Pressure Monitoring in Intensive Care Patients
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed a noninvasive technique that could dramatically improve the way doctors monitor intracranial hypertension, a condition where increased pressure in the brain can lead to severe outcomes like strokes and hemorrhages.
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