In a political climate at risk of “alternative facts” and conspiracy theories, research misconduct is also on the rise and gaining increased attention. Disinformation and fraudulent research is making headlines, like the recent Ohio State and Berkeley kerfuffles. Stanford University has joined the list of institutions with cases of questionable research practices. And now, the Department of Justice is looking very closely at clinical trial fraud.
What is research misconduct?
The Office of Research Integrity defines misconduct in research as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results. This can also extend to breaches of confidentiality and authorship/publication violations, and even fake authors.
Big or small, each instance of disinformation threatens the integrity of the entire scientific community as well as the publishing bodies we rely upon to validate and disseminate research outcomes across the globe. And the issue is global—for example, Retraction Watch has cataloged over 350 retractions of papers on COVID-19 from around the world.
What motivates these questionable practices?
Many researchers are under professional pressure to publish; for those in higher education, tenure and promotion relies on maintaining a high volume of papers in prestigious journals. Some are striving to increase their credibility and influence on a given topic. Other scholars are motivated by greater exposure in order to change policy or legislation.
In some cases, studies have been manipulated in order to capture the interest of high-profile journals and gain wider attention with impressive headlines, while others are looking to boost the prestige and authority of their work. Researchers are also not immune to “fake news” or “clickbait.”
There are also cases of omission, as journals generally favor studies with positive outcomes, rather than articles where the study had null or negative results. This can skew the knowledge that is codified in scholarly publications and further distort the scientific record.
How can we avoid faulty research?
- Sign up for database alerts for errata/retractions, which are often available directly from publishers or by using platforms like PubPeer.
- Follow experts like Dr. Elisabeth Bik, who has dedicated her career to investigating cases of faulty research or manipulated images.
- If you’re looking to submit an article for publication and want to confirm the legitimacy of the journal, use the Think / Check / Submit service to identify trusted publishers.
- If you want to check if a paper has had any reported problems, look up the citation in the Retraction Watch database.
So what happens if you do find an inaccuracy?
Many cases of errors or mistakes can be addressed easily by notifying the publisher. In a rare instance, whistleblowing on a level of clinical fraud like this one with Duke University requires more exhaustive steps. Regardless of the topic, place, or publication, the golden rule to safeguarding our scientific community is to speak out. As they say, “if you see something, say something”.