Dr. Goodman's own research concerns the proper measurement, conceptualization and synthesis of research evidence, with particular emphasis on Bayesian approaches to quantitation, and qualitative approaches arising from the philosophy of science. He is also interested in developing methods to use shared data to confirm and extend published science. He also has worked on the connections between ethics and clinical research and policy making. Finally, he has a strong interest in developing curricula and new models for teaching the foundations of good scientific practice, from question development to proper study design, conduct, analysis and inference. He teaches courses on clinical research methods, foundations of scientific and statistical reasoning, and evaluation of diagnostic and predictive technologies.

He has been a senior statistical editor of Annals of Internal Medicine since 1987 and was Editor of Clinical Trials: Journal of the Society for Clinical Trials from 2004-2013. He is Chair of the Methodology Committee of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), where he led their open science and data sharing efforts, and is scientific advisor for the national Blue Cross–Blue Shield Technology Assessment Program. He has served on numerous Institute of Medicine committees since the mid 1990's, including one on vaccine safety, chairing a 2012 committee on drug safety, and a 2014 committee on sharing data from clinical trials. He was awarded the 2016 Spinoza Chair in Medicine from the University of Amsterdam for his work in scientific inference, received the 2019 Abraham Lilienfeld award from the American College of Epidemiology for his lifetime research and teaching contributions to the field, and was elected into the National Academy of Medicine in 2020.