October 12, 2012

Scientific fraud: a sign of the times? - The Guardian

If you read about scientific fraud in the recent news, it would seem that there is much to worry about. It's on the rise, apparently! There has been a 10-fold increase in the number of retracted papers since the 1970's, and a number of these are due to fraud or suspected fraud.

An investigation of retractions from the biomedical scientific literature database PubMed published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA (PNAS) found that a whopping 63.2% of health- and life-science related retractions were due to fraud, suspected fraud or plagiarism, with good old honest error retractions in the sound minority. This sounds scary – especially the 'suspected fraud'. Is this just the tip of the scientific deceit iceberg? Just how many lies are lurking in the scientific literature?

Then there are the stories. Professor Marc Hauser (formerly) of Harvard was accused by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services's Office of Research Integrity of inventing results to support his idea of a biological foundation for cognition in monkeys – specifically if they could recognize changes in sound patterns like human babies can. Hauser was a popular scientist too; he even has a best-selling book: Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong where he somewhat ironically argued that "policy wonks and politicians should listen more closely to our intuitions and write policy that effectively takes into account the moral voice of our species." Which worked out in his case; he was busted for scientific misconduct. His book also tells us that "our ability to detect cheaters who violate social norms is one of nature's gifts". Nature's gifts or not, his students and research assistants blew the whistle.

And this isn't just in life science, it's everywhere. Physics has its high profile cheaters too! There is Jan Hendrik Schön, the physicist who made up his data – 26 of his papers have been retracted and he has been stripped of his doctoral degree. And then there is the cold fusion boys who, to be fair, are probably more victims of faulty equipment and sticking to your beloved theory despite the facts, than perpetrators of actual fraud. Psychology is not immune either; Dirk Smeester, whose results seemed too good to be true, has also been caught just making stuff up.

Is no scientific discipline safe? Are scientists just incapable of keeping their modern houses clean? It has been argued that because of recent pressure for scientists to publish groundbreaking results that change the world, the temptation to commit fraud is perhaps bound to increase, implying that there was a simpler, more honest time for science. Dewy-eyed, there is a temptation to believe that scientists back in the day were only of high moral character and were purely duty-bound to pursue the truth. But this isn't really true. Fraud in science isn't new, just like fraud in anything isn't new.>>>

Random Posts


  • Honest work - NATURE

    Nature 484, 141 (12 April 2012),  doi:10.1038/484141bThe plagiarism police deserve thanks for defending the honour of the PhD.Last week, Hungary's President Pál Schmitt was forced to resign because of plagiarism detected in his 1992 PhD thesis on physical education. Tivadar Tulassay, rector o... READ MORE>>

  • A lot of science is just plain wrong

    Nigel Hawkes Suddenly, everybody’s saying it: the scientific and medical literature is riddled with poor studies, irreproducible results, concealed data and sloppy mistakes.Since these studies underpin a huge number of government policies, from health to the environment, that’s a serious charge.Le... READ MORE>>

  • Hungarian President Resigns in Plagiarism Scandal

    BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian President Pal Schmitt resigned Monday because of a plagiarism scandal regarding a doctoral dissertation he had written 20 years ago on the Olympics.>>> READ MORE>>

  • Rector quits after plagiarism scandal

    The rector of Budapest's Semmelweis University has announced his resignation, the latest twist in a plagiarism scandal surrounding President Pal Schmitt.Tivadar Tulassay's announcement followed last week's decision to strip Schmitt of his 1992 doctorate, after an investigative committee set up b... READ MORE>>

  • Hungarian president loses doctorate in plagiarism case

    Semmelweis University has stripped Hungarian President Pál Schmitt of his doctoral degree after determining that he copied much of his thesis from other sources, prompting opposition politicians to call for his resignation, the Hungarian media reported. The university's rector announced the deci... READ MORE>>

  • iThenticate Assesses The Damaging Effects of Research Misconduct

    To: BUSINESS, STATE AND TECHNOLOGY EDITORSNew report examines the distinct costs caused by the rise in plagiarism, falsified research and other scholarly misconductOAKLAND, Calif., March 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Turnitin, creators of iThenticate and the leader in plagiarism prevention, to... READ MORE>>

  • How to avoid retractions for plagiarism: Advice from a radiology journal editor (and arXiv) - Retraction Watch

    Earlier this month, we highlighted the concerns of the editors of the ACS Nano journal about self-plagiarism, otherwise known as duplication. The editor of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) — that’s radiology, for the uninitiated — has similar concerns, but about plagiarism of others’ work... READ MORE>>

.

.
.

Popular Posts