Fraud Accounts for Majority of Scientific Study Retractions
October 22, 2012
A recent study regarding fraud in information released from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is puzzling. The study analyzed retracted papers from 1977 onward and the reasons for those retractions. The findings? Fraud, plagiarism, and duplication were the most common reasons for retractions.
The article “Fraud, Not Error, Accounts for Most Scientific Retractions” on The Curious Wavefunction blog tells us that about 67% of the 2047 retracted papers could be traced to misconduct.
The study informs us of the possible solutions to the troubling results:
“But sadly this culture is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. What can we do to curb its worst excesses? The paper points to encouraging solutions like the Office of Research Integrity and regular courses on ethics and data presentation. There are few counterparts to these measures in developing countries and this needs to be taken seriously by their governments. More importantly, researchers, journal editors and referees need to be taught both the value and the methodology of honest research from day one of their careers.”
We wonder how much of an impact ethics courses would have on researchers that are competing for grants, publicity, funding, and resources. Perhaps the answer is in search systems. Are “smart” systems able to detect willful manipulation of information? We think this could potentially be an area ripe for research and innovation.
Andrea Hayden, October 22, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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