steps we took to control the other variables). Here's what we can say (and with what degree of certainty) about the hypothesis in the light of these results. Here's the next study we'd like to do to be even more sure. And , not only will the logical connections between the data and what is inferred from them look plausible to the science writer who is hip to the scientific method, but they ought to look plausible to other scientists -- even to scientists who might prefer different hypotheses, or different experimental approaches. If what makes something good science is its epistemology -- the process by which data are used to generate and/or support knowledge claims -- then even scientists who may disagree with those knowledge claims should still be able to recognize the patterns of reasoning involved as properly scientific . This suggests a couple more things we might ask credible scientists to display: Here are the results of which we're aware (published and unpublished) that might undermine our findings. Here's how we have taken their criticisms (or implied criticisms) seriously in evaluating our own results. If the patterns of reasoning are properly scientific, why wouldn't all the scientists agree about the knowledge claims themselves? Perhaps they're taking different sets of data into account, or they disagree about certain of the assumptions made in framing the question. The important thing to notice here is that scientists can disagree with each other about experimental results and scientific conclusions without thinking