“Papers in leading psychology, economic and science journals that fail to replicate and therefore are less likely to be true are often the most cited papers in academic research, according to a new study by the University of California San Diego’s Rady School of Management.”
Papers that failed to replicate get cited far more than the ones that held up. Reviewers lower the bar when a result is “interesting.” Experts can predict which findings will fail and journals publish them anyway. Citations measure attention, and the system pays for attention.