[3] In Science Fictions, Ritchie argues that modern scientific research suffers from a number of issues – including outright fraud; publication bias and human bias; negligence and error; and sensationalism through media hype – that undermine its ability to be objective and accurate.

[4] He describes methodological issues involved in the replication crisis, such as p-hacking, as well as broader systemic issues, such as perverse incentives in the peer review process and the problem of null results being difficult or impossible to publish, leading to under-reporting of many important findings.

But he also points out less obvious, pervasive fraud – for example, a survey that found evidence of manipulated images in 4% of the 20,000 scientific papers analyzed.

In the final chapter, Ritchie offers possible solutions for improving the methodology, incentives, and outcomes of scientific research, such as encouraging researchers to pre-register their work to avoid the temptation to alter their conclusions to fit the outcome, and using technology to identify common errors that can creep into and distort statistical analysis.

"[1] Christie Aschwanden of Wired praised the book for being "a highly readable and competent description of the problems facing researchers in the 21st century" and "an excellent primer for anyone who wants to understand why and how science is failing to live up to its ideals.