Article on how science really works -- a Philosophy of Science Perspective

In my opinion, it is generally useful for people (the public and practicing scientists) to have some grounded understanding of how the doing of science actually occurs. A great place to start is the work of philosophers of science, like the article below. In my own career, I have found the papers that I took in philosophy of science (as well as ongoing study) to be very helpful. So much so, that I would recommend students and practicing scientists alike to spend some effort in learning from those scholars.

Relatedly, too often, specific, rigorous training in the application of the scientific method is missing from training of scientists. Instead, an ad hoc approach of a bit in this paper, a bit in that paper, and whatever one's advisor may impart is pretty normal. For those who are keen to know more about how to apply the scientific method in practice, Hugh Gauch's Scientific Method in Brief is a great resource. While the audience for the book is stated to be those who are learning about the scientific method for the first time, I reckon it is very helpful for those teaching and practicing scientific research as well. I had the pleasure of taking a paper with Hugh using his first book Scientific Method in Practice. It was with a small group of keenly interested students. I rank it as one of the top papers in my educational career in terms of influence and utility.



Multiple goals, multiple solutions, plenty of second-guessing and revising − here’s how science really works

Unrealistic, outdated ideas that idealize science can set the public up to distrust scientists and the research process. A philosopher of science describes 3 aspects of how science really gets done.

theconversation.com