Survey: Scientific Misbehavior Is Common

[On the Road]

NEW YORK - It's not the stuff of headlines, like fraud. But more mundane misbehavior by scientists is common enough that it may pose an even greater threat to the integrity of science, a new report asserts.

One-third of scientists surveyed said that within the previous three years, they'd engaged in at least one practice that would probably get them into trouble, the report said. Examples included circumventing minor aspects of rules for doing research on people and overlooking a colleague's use of flawed data or questionable interpretation of data.

---snip

Of the 10 practices that Martinson's study described as the most serious, less than 2 percent of respondents admitted to falsifying data, plagiarism or ignoring major aspects of rules for conducting studies with human subjects. But nearly 8 percent said they'd circumvented what they judged to be minor aspects of such requirements.

Nearly 13 percent of those who responded said they'd overlooked "others' use of flawed data or questionable interpretation of data," and nearly 16 percent said they had changed the design, methods or results of a study "in response to pressure from a funding source.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050608/ap_on_sc/misbehaving_scientists

[valis]

1. Funded by: Chimpy association against scientists. Because the truth hurts

[Susang]

6. Not so

Lots and lots of ego in science. Ego and big money. Just look at the situation at the NIH, specifically with the way their AIDs experimental drug trial programs.

Here's a couple of links, since I hear that you're so fond of them:

http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/04/12/16.php
http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/05/05/04.php
http://www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com/issue/2005/04_15/2_government_medicine03_7.html

[Warpy]

2. I have a friend who quit cancer research

because the guy running the project was shitcanning all unfavorable outcomes to his thesis. This was 30 years ago. I don't know if the guy with the NIH grant was fudging things on his own or if he had Uncle Sugar or a drug company breathing down his neck.

I do know that my acquaintance has a master's degree that is useless while he works as a carpenter and can manage to look at himself in the mirror every morning.

[Beetwasher]

3. Yeah, Not Surprising, Scientists Are Human, But Thankfully

There's peer review AND replication to help guard against this problem...Scientific method ain't perfect, but so far, it's the best thing going (though I know I don't have to tell YOU that!).

[Rex]

4. Scientific misbehavior is why we have the A-bomb.

nt

[ToeBot]

5. I'm fairly sure the Manhattan Project was a political contstruct...

...overseen by the Army Corp of Engineers. But you could be right - just a bunch of those pesky scientists misbehavin'