Are your methods as good as your theories?

Humans are meaning makers. We find patterns and stories wherever we look, from a side-wise glance across a bus to who-sits-next-to-whom at a table.

That meaning making is a double edge sword in science. It helps draw the novel connections of scientific breakthroughs but also allows for wishful thinking about muddled data. The scientific method, research methods, and statistics are "catch trials" for that process. They help separate signal from noise and prevent scientists from being too human.

The scientific method, research methods, and statistics are considered the basic elements of research. They are taught first, followed by domain specific knowledge. Those basics are rarely revisited. The opposite should be true: Those basics should not only be revisited but continually honed.

Improvements in domain specific knowledge need to be echoed with improvements in the methods that create that knowledge.