• Question: Are your methods generally accepted?

    Asked by bath449hug on 14 Jan 2022.
    • Photo: Danielle Nader

      Danielle Nader answered on 14 Jan 2022:

      We do use some standard methods that many researchers are confident in understanding and agreeing with. This includes microscopy, protein assays, flow cytometry, animal models etc. But many times, labs come up with their own original method that they believe is the right way to show a certain theory or explain a scenario. Even our lab has a few of those! These methods have to be critically reviewed by scientific experts with years of experience in that field, before they can be published and generally accepted.

    • Photo: Samuel Ellis

      Samuel Ellis answered on 14 Jan 2022: last edited 14 Jan 2022 11:24 am

      Most techniques used in lab research are used by lots of scientists everywhere as they have been shown to work. However we are also always trying to find new approaches and methods. For example, my boss came up with a new model for growing layers of lung cells and measuring how neutrophils (a type of white blood cell that are part of your immune system) can pass through, which is important because that is what they must do to react to threats like viruses or bacteria in the lungs.

      As Danielle mentioned, when research is published other scientists get the chance to check our methods, so that the best techniques get accepted over time

    • Photo: Jonny Coates

      Jonny Coates answered on 14 Jan 2022:

      Most methods are generally accepted but the real question is “have the researchers used the best methods to answer their question or have they even used the correct method”? This is what peer review is supposed to do (it doesn’t do an amazing job – despite what many scientists seem to think!). However, once your work is shared with the scientific community, if your methods are not good / not used appropriately then the community will make this clear, which can lead to work being retracted. We saw lots of this with COVID related science, particularly early in the pandemic.

    • Photo: Chris Budd

      Chris Budd answered on 15 Jan 2022:

      My method of studying the effects of COVID (and many other things) is to take everything that we know about the system and then turn it in to mathematical equations (this is usually called a mathematical model). We then solve the equations (usually on a computer) and compare the predictions against data. If we are happy with the results then we use the model to make predictions about the future. When studying COVID for example we use a set of equations called the SIR model. We can also study many other things using mathematical models, such as climate change. This method of predicting the future is widely accepted as being useful in many circumstances, although when you use it you must always be aware that a model is only an approximation of reality and often has a level of uncertainty.

    • Photo: Amy Mason

      Amy Mason answered on 17 Jan 2022:

      My research group works on novel methods. This means by definition they aren’t generally accepted as we are the first people to think of them.

      Some of them become standard methods in time, some of them turn out only to be useful in a very small number of cases and don’t become standard.

      We do sometimes get rejections from journals because the reviewer isn’t up to date with the field and doesn’t understand which bits of our methods are generally accepted and which bits are new.

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