UC Davis 1st Annual Research Quality and Design Symposium

ARC Meeting Rm 1, Main Campus

UC Davis 1st Annual Research Quality and Design Symposium

On January 29, 2019, The Ethics Commons co-hosted the first annual UC Davis Symposium on Research Quality and Design. It featured an international faculty and drew an interdisciplinary audience from both UC Davis campuses. The title for the 2019 symposium was “How Much Does Science Deserve the Public’s Trust? An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Methodological Challenges in Research.”

Following are links to videos of the proceedings.

  • The day began with a few words of welcome and introduction by Mark Yarborough, PhD, one of the co-founders of the new annual series. View video >
  • The Keynote Address, “Open Science Needs Open Conversation,” was delivered by Robert Nadon, PhD, with the Department of Human Genetics at McGill University and current Fellow at the QUEST Center at the Berlin Institute of Health in Berlin, Germany. Dr. Nadon is an international expert in research design and statistical analysis who has long advocated for good study design and good statistical analysis practices. View video >
  • The second address was delivered by Dr. Emily Sena, a faculty member in the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests focus on how to improve the quality and utility of animal research. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief at BMJ Open Science. Her talk was entitled, “How reliable are biomedical research publications?” View video >
  • UC Davis faculty members Dr. Sarah Perrault and Dr. Yarborough joined Drs. Nadon and Sena for the first panel and audience discussion. Among other things, it drew attention to the broader ethical and social implications of methodologically weak scientific studies. View video >
  • Dr. Joseph Garner from Stanford University gave the next talk, entitled “Increasing the Value of Animal Model Research,” which drew attention to widespread but underappreciated methodological deficiencies in much animal research. View video >
  • Dr. Garner’s talk was followed by a panel discussion moderated by UC Davis faculty member Dr. David Rocke, who was joined by fellow UC Davis colleague Dr. Jonathan Eisen. View video >
  • The day’s final presentation featured UC Davis alum Dr. Paul Smaldino, now on the faculty of Cognitive and Information Sciences at UC Merced. His presentation was “Five Models of Science.” View video >
  • The symposium closed with a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Simine Vazire, faculty member in the UC Davis Department of Psychology. She was joined by Dr. Smaldino and Dr. Cristina Moya from the UC Davis Department of Anthropology. View video >​​​​​​​ 
  • The symposium was immediately followed by the 39th UC Davis Forum on the Public University and the Social Good. This forum featured Stanford University Professor Dr. John Ioannidis, who delivered the lecture, “Reproducible and Useful Research: Building Trust in our Science.” A link to his presentation is found here >
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