Slashdot Mirror
How Common Is Scientific Misconduct?
Hugh Pickens writes "The image of scientists as objective seekers of truth is periodically jeopardized by the discovery of a major scientific fraud. Recent scandals like Hwang Woo-Suk's fake stem-cell lines or Jan Hendrik Schön's duplicated graphs showed how easy it can be for a scientist to publish fabricated data in the most prestigious journals. Daniele Fanelli has an interesting paper on PLoS ONE where she performs a meta-analysis synthesizing previous surveys to determine the frequency with which scientists fabricate and falsify data, or commit other forms of scientific misconduct. A pooled, weighted average of 1.97% of scientists admitted to having fabricated, falsified or modified data or results at least once — a serious form of misconduct by any standard — and up to 33.7% admitted other questionable research practices. In surveys asking about the behavior of colleagues, admission rates were 14.12% for falsification, and up to 72% for other questionable research practices. Misconduct was reported more frequently by medical/pharmacological researchers than others. 'Considering that these surveys ask sensitive questions and have other limitations, it appears likely that this is a conservative estimate of the true prevalence of scientific misconduct,' writes Fanelli. 'It is likely that, if on average 2% of scientists admit to have falsified research at least once and up to 34% admit other questionable research practices, the actual frequencies of misconduct could be higher than this.'"
I agree with Dr Anonymous here somewhat. I was trying to get a PhD in physics for a while, and some of the requirements were unreasonable. There were 3 requirements at my school:
1) Pass a qualifying exam. This is a really difficult test that shows you understood the material. It took me months of continuous study, but I finally passed it. I thought this was a terrible, but a reasonable requirement.
2) Teach a class. I hate giving speeches and the idea of teaching a class terrified me. I didn't want to get a PhD to teach, I actually wanted to do research and add to the world knowledge pool. I didn't like this requirement, but was willing to do it if I had to.
3) Do a research project and write a paper on it. This is the one where I finally dropped the ball. It was required that I give up everything I know and travel around with an experiment to work on. There was mention of an underground lab under a lake in Russia. NO. The funny thing is, it was my understanding that the project would never have to leave the building for me to get my PhD. But funding likes to move around like that and screw you over. Similarly, I could see someone falsifying information for a report if something like this came up. I think 2% of the people getting upset enough to publish a lie is not surprising. I ended up moving back home and haven't done anything worthwhile since. Who committed the bigger sin?