Latest Scientific misconduct Stories

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A new study set to be published in the online journal mBio today claims that, statistically, men can’t be trusted when it comes to scientific research. According to research from Rutgers University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, male researchers are more likely to commit scientific fraud than their female counterparts. What’s more, this misconduct occurs at each rung of the professional ladder...

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online It was just about 14 years ago that a study published in the prestigious English medical journal The Lancet unleashed a firestorm of paranoia that swept new and expecting parents. At the time, it appeared to researcher Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues that there was a connection between the child immunization program for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and the diagnosis of autism. Wakefield’s contention was that the MMR...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new study finds that fraud in scientific research is growing at a troubling rate, with an average of 300 papers per year being retracted for some form of scientific misconduct. It had been generally perceived that most peer-reviewed medical, biological and scientific papers retracted have been done so due to unintentional errors. However, authors conducting the largest-ever study of retractions, have found that the percentage of...

BRONX, N.Y., Oct. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- In sharp contrast to previous studies suggesting that errors account for the majority of retracted scientific papers, a new analysis--the most comprehensive of its kind--has found that misconduct is responsible for two-thirds of all retractions. In the paper, misconduct included fraud or suspected fraud, duplicate publication and plagiarism. The paper's findings show as a percentage of all scientific articles published, retractions for...

New report examines the distinct costs caused by the rise in plagiarism, falsified research and other scholarly misconduct OAKLAND, Calif., March 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Turnitin, creators of iThenticate and the leader in plagiarism prevention, today announced the release of a new report titled, "True Costs of Research Misconduct." The report explores the reasons for the dramatic rise in research misconduct over the past decade and defines four distinct categories...

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Strategic Autism Initiative (SAI), an autism research foundation, reported today that an ongoing investigation into the allegations of fraud against Dr. Andrew Wakefield concerning a paper published in The Lancet in February, 1998 is being conducted by an internationally respected scientist, Dr. David Lewis. Early results of his investigation, which were published on November 9, in The British Medical Journal (BMJ) and The Journal Nature,...

A South Korean who fabricated research on human embryos now claims that he has cloned coyotes for the first time. Dr. Hwang Woo-suk claimed he had cloned human embryos in papers published in academic journals in 2004 and 2005. These claims made him a national hero temporarily and helped him gain government funds, but also inevitably send him to prison. Despite his false claims, Hwang has had success cloning animals and succeeded in cloning the first dog in 2005. Now Hwang says he...

Five years after South Korea's scientific reputation was shattered by a cloning research scandal, the country has approved stem cell medication for heart attack victims. South Korea put stem cell research on hold after Hwang Woo-Suk was found guilty of fraud for his work in the field in 2005. The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) approved the sale of the Hearticellgram-AMI treatment, developed by FCB-Pharmicell. This approval demonstrates the new push to put research back in the...

Canada needs an agency to investigate research misconduct, states an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj110442.pdf.Although honesty, accuracy and professionalism of scientists are vital for research integrity, there have been many public examples of serious research misconduct. Conflicts of interest, author misrepresentation and manipulation of data are other issues that also affect scientific and academic...

Scientific community able to police itself, noted physicist assertsThe global scientific community is capable of policing its own behavior and should resist creation of a central oversight body to enforce 'universal standards' that may have unintended consequences, a renowned physicist and director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin said Saturday.Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Without Borders meeting in Washington,...