Reversing the trend of increasing surface analysis errors
Reversing the trend of increasing surface analysis errors lead image
Surface and materials analysis techniques such as atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy have grown in popularity in recent years, especially among non-expert users. While this is generally a good thing, one resulting downside is an increasing prevalence of errors and poor data analysis from researchers unfamiliar with the intricacies of the corresponding technique.
Major et al. discussed this increase in errors, the consequences if this increase is left unchecked, and strategies to improve the quality of data analysis.
“The crux of our message is that some users of surface equipment and stakeholders have reward structures that encourage uncooperative behavior and lead to suboptimal outcomes,” said author George Major. “We hope to inspire systemic change that can shift researchers out of a lose-lose or suboptimal outcome situation and motivate them to publish higher quality data.”
Non-experts using these techniques must choose whether to devote time to becoming more familiar with the intricacies of the analysis. Those that do will publish fewer papers, which is disincentivized in the current publishing environment. Subverting this structure requires changes from researchers, journals, funding sources, and other invested parties.
The authors listed steps that each of these groups can take to improve the quality of data analysis in the literature and mitigate this issue.
“If it continues to get worse there will be a lot of wasted time and money to replicate irreplicable studies until there is some sort of large, corrective effort,” said Major. “Our perspective is focused on trying to give direction to this corrective effort before it needs to be too widespread.”
Source: “Perspective on improving the quality of surface and material data analysis in the scientific literature with a focus on x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS),” by George H. Major, Joshua W. Pinder, Daniel E. Austin, Donald R. Baer, Steven L. Castle, Jan Čechal, B. Maxwell Clark, Hagai Cohen, Jonathan D. P. Counsell, Alberto Herrera-Gomez, Pavitra Govindan, Seong H. Kim, David J. Morgan, Robert L. Opila, Cedric J. Powell, Stanislav Průša, Adam Roberts, Mario Rocca, Naoto Shirahata, Tomáš Šikola, Emily F. Smith, Regina C. So, John E. Stovall, Jennifer Strunk, Andrew Teplyakov, Jeff Terry, Stephen G. Weber, and Matthew R. Linford, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology: A (2023). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0002437 .
This paper is part of the Reproducibility Challenges and Solutions II with a Focus on Surface and Interface Analysis Collection, learn more here .
