It can be hard for non-scientists to know when science news is scientifically sound and that conclusions have been made from sufficient evidence and proper methods. However, there are some things to look out for. For example, "the Personality and Social Psychology Review, a prestigious journal, recently published a set of guidelines put forth by a task force on research practices to improve the dependability of research, including choosing an appropriate sample size and avoiding what the authors call “questionable research practices”—for example, running multiple experiments with similar procedures and only reporting those with statistically significant results."
This article uses an example of a article that was pretty popular in 2009 to demonstrate this point.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/how-to-read-about-science/281855/
This article uses an example of a article that was pretty popular in 2009 to demonstrate this point.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/how-to-read-about-science/281855/