Scientific research emperor is marching around buck naked / BMJ

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Scientific research emperor is marching around buck naked / BMJ

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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