Method-development research, that branch of research where we develop new tools to be used in further research or applied to the real world, has been traditionally considered different from hypothesis-driven research. This has led to an absurd situation.

Even PLoS ONE, a journal that takes open science very seriously, says that “submissions…must demonstrate that the new tool achieves its intended purpose [and that it] is an improvement over existing options.” The fact that it sounds so reasonable is actually what makes it scary.