METRIC Berlin

In January 2019 the Meta-Research Innovation Center Berlin (METRIC-B) was founded by Professor John Ioannidis with funding from the Stiftung Charité and the Einstein Foundation Berlin.

METRIC-B is hosted by the QUEST Center for Transforming Biomedical Research of the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. METRIC-B is the European sister to the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS).

Whilst some scientists study rocks, insects, brains, or molecules, METRIC-B studies the process of science itself. This meta-research, or ‘research on research’, involves evaluating quality, bias, and efficiency during critical phases of the research cycle, including methods, reporting, reproducibility, evaluation, and incentives.

METRIC-B takes an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to cross-fertilize ideas and resources between fields to most effectively maximise the quality and efficiency of the scientific endeavour.

Huang AW, Haslberger M, Coulibaly N, Galárraga O, Oganisian A, Belbasis L, Panagiotou OA. Multivariable prediction models for health care spending using machine learning: A protocol of a systematic review. Diagnostic and Prognostic Research 2022;6(1):4. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35321760/
Boesen K. Working towards harmonised access to clinical trial data across European drug regulatory agencies. BMJ Opinion; 31 July 2021.
Boesen K, et al. Open letter. Proposal to the Heads of Medicines Agencies to improve harmonisation of access to Clinical Study Reports across National Competent Authorities. 31 May 2021.
Kim Boesen, Peter C Gøtzsche, John Ioannidis. EMA and FDA psychiatric drug trial guidelines: Assessment of guideline development and trial design recommendations. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences 2021;30:e35. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33926608.
Kim Boesen, Florian Naudet, John Ioannidis. Depot aripiprazole: subverted trials and authorization of a best-selling drug. 16 March 2021. Preprint ssrn.com/abstract=3805790.
Sophia Crüwell, Angelika Stefan, Nathan Evans. Robust Standards in Cognitive Science. Computational Brain & Behavior 2019; 2:255-65. doi.org/10.1007/s42113-019-00049-8.
Tom Hardwicke, John Ioannidis. Populating the Data Ark: An attempt to retrieve, preserve, and liberate data from the most highly-cited psychology and psychiatry articles. PLOS ONE 2018;13(8): e0201856. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.020185.
Tom Hardwicke, John Ioannidis. Mapping the universe of registered reports. Nature Human Behaviour 2018;2, 793–6. doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0444-y.
Tom Hardwicke, Michael Frank, Simine Vazire, Steven Goodman. Should psychology journals adopt specialized statistical review? Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science 2019; 2:240-9. doi.org/10.1177/2515245919858428.
Tom Hardwicke, John Ioannidis. Petitions in scientific argumentation: dissecting the request to retire statistical significance. European Journal of Clinical Investigation 2019;49:e13162.
Tom Hardwicke, Stylianos Serghiou, Perrine Janiaud, Valentin Danchev, Sophia Crüwell, Steven Goodman, John Ioannidis. Calibrating the scientific ecosystem through meta-research. Annual Review of Statistics and its Application 2020;7:11-37. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-statistics-031219-041104.
Tom Hardwicke, Joshua Wallach, Mallory Kidwell, Theiss Bendixen, Sophia Crüwell, John Ioannidis (2020). An empirical assessment of transparency and reproducibility-related research practices in the social sciences (2014-2017). Royal Society Open Science 2020;7: 190806. doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190806.
Tom Hardwicke, Steven N Goodman. How often do leading biomedical journals use statistical experts to evaluate statistical methods? The results of a survey. PLOS ONE 2020;15: e0239598.
Tom Hardwicke, Robert Thibault, Jessica Kosie, Joshua Wallach, Mallory Kidwell, John Ioannidis. Estimating the prevalence of transparency and reproducibility-related research practices in psychology (2014-2017). Perspectives on Psychological Science 2021; doi.org/10.1177/1745691620979806.
Tom Hardwicke, Denes Szucs, Robert T Thibault, Sophia Crüwell, Olmo Van den Akker, Michele B Nuijten, John Ioannidis. (2021, February 9). Post-replication citation patterns in psychology: Four case studies. Preprint on MetaArXiv. doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/wt5ny.
Perrine Janiaud, Cathrine Axfors, Janneke van’t Hooft, et al. The worldwide clinical trial research response to the COVID-19 pandemic - the first 100 days [version 2; peer review: 2 approved]. F1000Research 2020, 9:119. doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.26707.2.

Selected METRIC-B publications can be found here.