RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Is most published research really false? JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 050575 DO 10.1101/050575 A1 Jeffrey T. Leek A1 Leah R. Jager YR 2016 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/27/050575.abstract AB There has been an increasing concern that most published medical findings are false. But what does it mean to be false? Here we describe the range of definitions of false discoveries in the scientific literature. We summarize the philosophical, statistical, and experimental evidence for each type of false discovery. We discuss common underpinning problems with the scientific and data analytic practices and point to tools and behaviors that can be implemented to reduce the problems with published scientific results.