Scientific research emperor is marching around buck naked / BMJ

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Scientific research emperor is marching around buck naked / BMJ

_http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?id=6833#newspost_

(http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?id=6833#newspost)

Meryl Nass, MD

The validity and quality of research underpin the entire research

enterprise worldwide. However, a number of studies have shown that many

researchers

take " shortcuts " and that perhaps 1-3% of research is grossly false,

fitting into the category of research misconduct. Research misconduct has been

defined in US federal law as fabrication, plagiarism and/or falsification.

Identified cases have been few, often limited to easy-to-identify falsified

figures in published papers. However, these may be the tip of the iceberg. “

Ginny Barbour, a senior editor with the PLoS group of journals, said one

third of authors could not find the original data to back up figures in

scientific papers when these were questioned.†OUCH! Have 1/3 of authors

fabricated or falsified data? Certainly, the incentives to do so are great:

career advancement in a highly competitive environment and obtaining grants that

enable you to perform more research. While the disincentive -- being

publicly identified and having one's career destroyed -- occurs so infrequently

the risk is negligible.

Meryl Nass, MD

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