Center of Trial and Error

Deadline approaching for submission in our Special Issue on the Role of Failure and Uncertainty in Open Education!

Read more and submit your proposal via journal.trialanderror.org/pub/call-fai... before August 31st, 2025, at 17:00 (CET).

New post! In this Cultures of Trial and Error blog, Anne Clinio explores Open Notebook Science through the work of Jean-Claude Bradley, who imagined a more transparent and collaborative way of doing science, that includes failure, doubt, and revision.

blog.trialanderror.org/the_promise_...

Deadline extended!

Nominate work on failure or with negative/null results in science for the Trial and Error Award - now open until July 15!

Winner will be announced at the symposium on Oct. 7th.

Nominate now > trialanderror.org/awards-2025-...

In 2024, a surgical journal published a case study set on Saturn. This thought experiment sparked debate among science sleuths: What counts as a legitimate correction to the scientific record?

Read our latest blog post by Mady Barbeitas:
blog.trialanderror.org/cultures-of-...

JOTE x NanoBubbles

New reflection on the Dutch STRIDER trial!
Despite hopes, prenatal sildenafil showed no benefit for fetal growth restriction - and even increased risks. This article looks back at a sub study using RNA sequencing to understand why.

Read the article here:
journal.trialanderror.org/pub/transcri...

Education reform is difficult, and in constant tension with tradition. For a special issue on Open Education, proposals and submissions are open, read more here: journal.trialanderror.org/pub/call-fai...

Nominations for the 2025 T&E award are closing soon! Celebrating the importance of ‘failed research’, nominations for the Award are open until June 30th! trialanderror.org/awards-2025-...

Does art have a function in a science-dominated world? An artistic project in an elderly care facility resulted in positive outcomes, and valuable lessons: journal.trialanderror.org/pub/function...

Mark your calendars for October 7th! The first Trial and Error Symposium will be held, with presentations, interactive workshops, and the Award Ceremony for the 2025 Trial and Error Award! Hope to see you there!

Cultures of Trial and Error: Wissenschaftschmerz Something is rotten in the state of science.

What fuels metascience?

STS-scholar @penders.bsky.social explores how the movement is shaped by Wissenschaftschmerz - a nostalgia for lost modernist ideals - as well as the hope to ‘rebuild’ science

Presented by JOTE x @nanobubbles.bsky.social

Read it here:
blog.trialanderror.org/wissenschaft...

“Peer reviews cause unnecessary delays to breakthroughs.” This idea led to some research being available pre-review during the COVID pandemic. But new perspectives suggest preprinting is a bad idea: journal.trialanderror.org/pub/preprint...

Designing a clinical trial can be hard. The PENTACON trial compared two techniques for eye surgery, but was cancelled due to various reasons. But from its failure, important lessons emerge: journal.trialanderror.org/pub/pentacon...

Published any ‘failed’ research? Negative, null or unexpected outcome? Nominations for the 2025 T&E Award are open! Save the date! T&E Symposium Oct. 7th 10:00-17:00 Workshops, presentations, exposition and Award Nominate before June 30th!

Save the date! On October 7th, we will hold our very first Symposium on Trial and Error. Here we will hand out the 2025 T&E Award for an article discussing a negative or unexpected outcome. We are accepting nominations until June 30th here: trialanderror.org/awards-2025-...

JOTE's publishing work manifests itself in real life!

The University in Transition, a book written by the rectorate of Utrecht University and published (OA) by JOTE, is now featured in a new, colourful mural on the Utrecht Science Park! The books were chosen by students

Artist: JanIsDeMan

Off to Vienna for a holiday, he claimed… but of course, JOTE chair Stefan Gaillard couldn’t pass up the chance to preach the importance of publishing null and failed results!

Great to hear the European Geosciences Union-crowd was receptive to the gospel! #OpenScience #EGU25 #FailureInScience

JOTE presents at the EGU in Vienna today!

Today, co-founder of JOTE Stefan Gaillard will present about the importance of publishing failed studies in the European Geosciences Union general assembly in Vienna. If you’re there, say hi to him! (Session EOS4.8)

Did you—or a colleague—publish a paper about failure, a null or negative result, or research that didn’t go as planned?

Nominate it for the 2025 Trial and Error Award—organized w/ the @museumoffailure.bsky.social, Utrecht Young Academy & Young Academy Twente

Link: trialanderror.org/awards-2025-...

The Trial and Error Award is back for its 2nd year!

We’re looking for published articles on scientific failure / with null result, with the winner drawn in a live lottery at the Trial and Error Symposium (Oct 7, 2025)

Know a paper that fits? Nominate now!
trialanderror.org/awards-2025-...

Misinformation is spreading and trust in authorities deteriorating. Could art help?

In our latest blog post, Professor of Economics Peter van Bergeijk explores how artistic observation fosters curiosity, nuance, and trust in an age of uncertainty.

Read more: blog.trialanderror.org/breaking-bub...

We have a new series!

> Cultures of Trial & Error <

How does science correction really work? What barriers do researchers face when fixing errors?

In this 12-part series, we explore self-correction in science—its challenges, practices & impact

Read more: blog.trialanderror.org/cultures-of-...

Maarten Derksen considers “Cultures of Trial and Error” in this new peer reviewed blog series on error correction in science hosted by @trialanderror.org

Few quotes follow…

blog.trialanderror.org/replication-...

Cultures of Trial and Error: Identifying and Overcoming Barriers in Science Correction A JOTE x NanoBubbles blog post series, with guest editors Melpomeni (Melina) Antonakaki, Candida F. Sánchez Burmester, Mady Barbeitas.

For more on this new blog series, sponsored by @trialanderror.org and @nanobubbles.bsky.social, see this Overview 👇

I once proposed this idea while I was a graduate student, a journal of "Negative Results". Faculty shot it down immediately and said it would never be worth reading. I welcome this new way of thinking and reporting data. journal.trialanderror.org #science

Love this! Failure is an integral part of any learning process. Pausing, reassessing and going at it again. Applies to all kind of scenarios, really ,)

What To Do When Your Hypothesis Is Wrong? Publish! In an effort to learn from scientific failure, The Journal of Trial Error only publishes “negative” results.

The Journal of Trial and Error is a scientific publication that only publishes papers with negative or unexpected results.

The team behind it wants to change how the scientific community thinks about failure in order to improve science.

We can also be found here in bluesky now!

While we get set up, listen to this interview with our greaf editor-in-chief Sarahanne Field on Science Friday