Scientific Fraud May Be More Widespread Than Thought, Poll Says

Scientific Fraud May Be More Widespread Than Thought, Poll Says

www.bloomberg.com

June 18 (Bloomberg) -- About 1,000 potential incidents of fabrication, falsification or plagiarism in scientific research go unreported every year, according to a survey that suggests such misconduct is far more prevalent than suspected.

On average, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity receives only 24 reports of suspected misconduct from academic and other research institutions yearly, according to a report in the journal Nature. The authors called for scientists and institutions to implement more safeguards against research fraud.

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Maybe some scientists aren't such a trustworthy source after all? If it were found that a lot of global warming advocacy scientific reports had been plagiarized, what would happen? I'm not saying that is the case...I'm merely asking, what if some of the believed facts that we often take in the name of science were in fact plagiarisms and not actual new studies that backed the previous ones.

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Besides the problem of scientific fraud, there is the obvious problem of scientific interpretation. I am pretty sure a lot of the scientific conclusions regarding the big, complex problems such as theoretical physics and global warming are based on erroneos interpretations of valid data. Scientists are just people, and as such should always be second guessed and their experiments verified. All good scientists know this, but there is a problem when politicians and business people hijack science for use as a source of authority and power.

A lot of scientific fraud might not be done by scientists...

Originally posted by yellowcard

Scientific Fraud May Be More Widespread Than Thought, Poll Says

www.bloomberg.com

June 18 (Bloomberg) -- About 1,000 potential incidents of fabrication, falsification or plagiarism in scientific research go unreported every year, according to a survey that suggests such misconduct is far more prevalent than suspected.

On average, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity receives only 24 reports of suspected misconduct from academic and other research institutions yearly, according to a report in the journal Nature. The authors called for scientists and institutions to implement more safeguards against research fraud.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Excellent item - and with the commericalisation and militarisation of science research, there is even less incentive for full honest disclosure of information to the public.

Science and religion have become the same monster imho. We are expected to trust and believe, and have faith in 'experts' on some subject or another. As my neighbour commented the other day - "if scientists are so smart, why is the world in such a mess?"

Skeptics who rely on published 'facts' are no different from religionists who rely on 'published facts'. Both conveniently ignore evidence that is contradictory, and there is enough info out there to cherry-pick or massage data to support any conclusion.

I reckon it is time to just stop believing anything - "consider everything, believe nothing" is my motto for the day.

Duncan