Professional Documents
Culture Documents
One reason for the persistence of this type of problem is the reluctance of people high in the science field to take these matters very seriously. Al Gore, chairman of the
hearing
Does medicine have a culture that turns a blind eye to research misconduct?
Fabrication: invention of data or cases Falsification: wilful distortion of data Plagiarism: copying of ideas, data or words without attribution Failing to get consent from an ethics committee for research
Publication of post hoc analyses without declaration that they were post hoc Gift authorship Not attributing other authors Redundant publication Not disclosing a conflict of interest
Not attempting to publish completed research Failure to do an adequate search of existing research before beginning new research
What is fraud?
We need a full taxonomy Better we need codes of good research practice--and we now have several
At the end of 1998 three major studies without sponsoring from the industry found a higher risk of venous thrombosis for third generation contraceptives; three sponsored studies did not. To date, of nine studies without sponsoring, one study found no difference and the other eight found relative risks from 1.5 to 4.0 (summary relative risk 2.4); four sponsored studies found relative risks between 0.8 and 1.5 (summary relative risk 1.1) The sponsored study with a relative risk of 1.5 has been reanalysed several times, yielding lower relative risks; after this failed to convince, a new reanalysis was sponsored by another company. One sponsored study finding an increased risk has not been published.
Vandenbroucke JP, Helmerhorst FM, Frits R Rosendaal FR. Competing interests and controversy about third generation oral contraceptives. BMJ 2000; 320: 381.
Conclusion
Research misconduct is a problem Most countries have not developed a coherent response to the problem They need to in order to avoid a collapse in public trust in medical research
The same probably goes for physics--and youre even slower than us, wow