Demonstrating that scientific misconduct can happen anywhere, and not simply in one study, the case of Dr Ranjit Kumar Chandra is a case in point. St. John’s, Nfld. [Newfoundland], may seem like an unlikely place for scientific scandal to brew, but in hindsight it appears, perhaps, the perfect place. For almost three decades, Memorial University […]
There’s an interesting article online here by David Goodstein of Caltech, in which he notices that misconduct problems seem rife in biological sciences administered by NIH and very infrequent in sciences administered by NSF. He identifies three factors as common in problems, noting that exact reproducibility in physical sciences is a major deterrent to fraud. […]
Here’s an interesting op ed by philosopher David Oderburg, who says: I venture to suggest that contemporary science is now so corrupted by the lust for loot and glory that nothing less than root-and-branch reform can save it. For a start, although I distance myself wholly from his anti-rationalism and methodological anarchy, I share the […]
I’ve planning to discuss Nature and Science policies on archiving and due diligence, I’ve got lots else to do, but have gotten sidetracked in the fascinating details of the unfolding of the Hwang controversy. Here’s a preliminary account.
A science scandal of Bre-X proportions has been developing through December engulfing both Science and Nature. New developments on Hwang’s stem cell research have been occurring daily. Hwang, like Mann, was one of Scientific American’s 50 Visionaries. Unlike Mann, he has been stripped of his title. I started looking at the story from a peer […]
Montgomerie and Birkenhead have an interesting discussion of scientific misconduct here (scroll to page 16), starting with Mendel. Bob Montgomerie and Tim Birkhead, 2005, A Beginner’s Guide to Scientific Misconduct, ISBE Newsletter, Vol. 17(1) May 2005, 16ff. URLhttp://www.behavecol.com/pages/pdf/Montgomerie&Birkhead_vol17%281%29.pdf
"Full, true and plain disclosure" is a fundamental obligation in the offering of public securities. As someone with experience in this field, I’ve been reflecting for some time about the following questions: Is there a duty of “full, true and plain disclosure” or its equivalent in science? If so, how is it expressed in journal […]
This post seems to have caught a chord and has quickly become the most read posting on the site. It was was cited approvingly by Roger Pielke at his blog [now here] and re-printed with slight edits by National Post on Feb. 15, 2005.
Climate Audit 
Failure of oversight and peer review
Demonstrating that scientific misconduct can happen anywhere, and not simply in one study, the case of Dr Ranjit Kumar Chandra is a case in point. St. John’s, Nfld. [Newfoundland], may seem like an unlikely place for scientific scandal to brew, but in hindsight it appears, perhaps, the perfect place. For almost three decades, Memorial University […]