Parapsychologists are constantly protesting that they are playing by all the standard scientific rules, and yet their results are being ignored – that they are unfairly being held to higher standards than everyone else. I’m willing to believe that. It just means that the standard statistical methods of science are so weak and flawed as to permit a field of study to sustain itself in the complete absence of any subject matter.
This general topic sometimes comes up on HN (most recently, yesterday†). Here's a good starting point:
I included a reliable source! Click my link to yesterday's HN story. It is an interview with John P.A. Ioannidis, "who is a professor at Stanford University and one of the most highly cited researchers in the world".
