Monday, March 12, 2012

Scandalous: Scientists and Doctors Falsifying Research Data

Natural Society, Mar. 11, 2012

A survey of nearly 2,800 scientists and doctors in the UK has found that 13 percent of them admitted to witnessing the falsification and fabrication of data created by their colleagues. Additionally, 6 percent of the nearly 2,800 individuals surveyed were aware of research misconduct at their own workplace which had never been properly investigated to looked into. Needless to say, there could very well be more scientists or doctors not speaking up, further increasing the scandal rate.

Dr. Fiona Godlee, editor for the British Medical Journal, for which the poll was conducted, says:

“While our survey can’t provide a true estimate of how much research misconduct there is in the UK, it does show that there is a substantial number of cases and that UK institutions are failing to investigate adequately, if at all…The BMJ has been told of junior academics being advised to keep concerns to themselves to protect their careers, being bullied into not publishing their findings, or having their contracts terminated when they spoke out…This survey chimes with our experience where we see many cases of institutions not co-operating with journals and failing to investigate research misconduct properly.

Full story
Related stories: 'Scientists falsify data to get research published and whistleblowers are bullied into keeping quiet,' claim their own colleagues

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