Shaw's Eco-Logic

This HND piece discusses the mostly ignored matter of fraud in scientific research. While such fraud can occur in several ways, the most grotesque method is to simply fudge the data, so that the desired conclusion is reached. Given the large number of technical journal articles that are retracted each year, this is a big deal. Moreover, it is not just a "victimless" crime, even if you don't care about the funding agency being defrauded. Deaths, lots of them, can occur if fake data is used to establish medical guidelines.

The trouble is, research fraud is seldom acknowledged, let alone punished. We spotlight a case in which evidence of fraud was overwhelming, but the university involved did nothing, and the professor who fudged the data remains employed. Given the poor quality of academic research, not to mention the utter lack of any conceivable practicality in so many instances, flat-out fraud makes an already bad situation so much worse.

Read the complete article.