I would have thought that "in this work" would refer to the written work, not the experiments, but, as you say, it is a world unto itself! (and scientist don't always have the best grasp of grammar!)

"Chapter I.
The Plan Followed in this Work
IN this chapter it is intended to give a brief summary of the subjects to be subsequently described in detail under their several heads."

from:http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/monograph...

Seems to be quite all right.

@Jol
You didn't say what you are editing. From your example I would guess at texts from non-native English speakers - "work" is often used when "study" or "experiment" or "research" would be a better translation of "Arbeit". It does work in some contexts, though (no pun intended).
The best way to familiarise yourself with the language is to read some high-impact journals.

"In the work by Smith et al. ..." is quite acceptable, but refers more to a published paper.

If writing for publication, however, don't forget that every word counts, and "During the course of this research ..." is three words longer than "In this study/experiment" ;-)

@Reinhard W
I think Jol is possibly more concerned with current international journals.
Did you actually read the sentence you quoted? :-)
Your link is to a translation:
Désiré van Monckhoven. A Popular Treatise on Photography. Translated By W.H. Thornthwaite. London, 1863.

"In this work ..." is used constantly and is correct. Also phrases like "In this contribution we present..." or "... we report on ...". Although variation is refreshing, it is most important to be able to communicate the message concisely. One should also keep in mind that most of the scientific community does not have English as their native tongue, and appreciate simple, easy to understand constructions.

Ich unterstuetze meine Vorschreiber: "In this work" ist ein stehender Ausdruck in (natur-)wissenschaftlichen Publikationen.

Ich muss heute einmal Marianne etwas widersprechen: "work" is often used when "study" or "experiment" or "research" would be a better translation of "Arbeit". 

Die beste Verwendung kommt natuerlich auf den Zusammenhang an. In Tabellen, die Literaturwerte und neue Ergebnisse zusammenfassen, bieten sich Fussnoten mit "a) ref. 1, b) ref.2 c) this work" an. (This study oder this research klingt fuer mich hier stilistisch extrem ungewohnlich, aka falsch ;) ).

In Einleitungen kann "in this work" zum Teil auch durch "in this study" ersetzt werden. Noch besser ist das noch viel kuerzere "here". "In this experiment" funktioniert nur in einigen Ausnahmefaellen, das "experiment" nicht benutzt werden kann, um einen groesseren Zusammenhang zu beschreiben. "In this research" wuerde ich nie als Synonym fuer eine Publikation verwenden, sondern hoechstens fuer das "Lebenswerk" eines Wissenschaftlers.

Beispiele:

In his research/work on goat breeding habits, Smith showed....

While goats are widely considered sexually unattractive, we will demonstrate in this work/in this study/here the strange attractiveness of female goats to the african elephant.

Thanks everyone for your feedback, you were a real help! I can now learn to live with these commonly used expressions.
Hein - loved your example, really brightened up my (scientific) day!