Targeting Errors in Specialist Laboratory Analysis

The reproducibility and transparency of research in science and social science is increasingly questioned, both within the academic community and across society in general. In "The prevention and detection of human error in ecological stable isotope analysis", David J. Hawke, Julie C. S. Brown and Sarah J. Bury pick up an issue that applies to complex, hi-tech measurements made in specialist science laboratories that are often remote from the researcher: the potential for inadvertent errors to occur in reported results. We argue that the researcher and the specialist laboratory both need to take a no-blame, quality management-based approach to preventing and detecting error. Although we have focused on one particular technique widely used in ecology (stable isotope analysis), the principles apply to any complex laboratory measurement. Read the full Methods in Ecology and Evolution article here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.13077