Next steps after airing disagreement on a scientific issue with policy implications: a meta-analysis, multi-lab replication and adversarial collaboration

• Published in: BMC biology Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 116
• Main Authors: Nakagawa, Shinichi, Lagisz, Malgorzata
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 23-05-2023; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Animals; Aquaculture; Atlantic salmon; Biology; Canada; Collaboration; Conflict management; Control; Disease transmission; Diseases; Dissent and Disputes; Energy expenditure; Experiments; Fish populations; Hypotheses; Medical policy; Meta-analysis; Metabolism; Methods; Null hypothesis significance testing; Open science; Physiology; Reoviridae Infections - virology; Replication; Replication crisis; Reproducibility; Research validity; Risk factors; Salmon; Statistical power; Statistics; Team science; Viral infections; Wildlife diseases; Canada; Open science; Team science; Reproducibility; Statistics; Null hypothesis significance testing; Replication crisis
• ISSN: 1741-7007; 1741-7007
• DOI: 10.1186/s12915-023-01567-5

Canadian policymakers are interested in determining whether farmed Atlantic salmon, frequently infected with Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV), may threaten wild salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest. A relevant work has been published in BMC Biology by Polinksi and colleagues, but their conclusion that PRV has a negligible impact on the energy expenditure and respiratory performance of sockeye salmon is disputed by Mordecai and colleagues, whose re-analysis is presented in a correspondence article. So, what is the true effect and what should follow this unresolved dispute? We suggest a 'registered multi-lab replication with adversaries'.