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Interesting. More context: http://annals.org/aim/article/2592772/scientific-misconduct-hurts http://annals.org/aim/article/2592772/scientific-misconduct-... Ca

Interesting. More context: http://annals.org/aim/article/2592772/scientific-misconduct-hurts http://annals.org/aim/article/2592772/scientific-misconduct-... Can anybody form an idea of the motivations behind such open misconduct? It is always very puzzling when people from the science community (which you usually don't enter without being intelligent and idealistic) get into such clearly wrong behaviour. Another case that left me very puzzled (and terrified, regarding how long he got a away with this without someone asking questions - he basically shaped a scientific field): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diederik_Stapel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diederik_Stapel

sliken 10y ago
Many research papers are so obscure that approximately zero people site them. Yet if you are a tenured professor it's publish or perish and there are often significant incentives. I suspect most of them would have gotten away with it if they changed the title a bit. There are also sometimes incentives for when your paper is cited, thus citing your own papers... even if they were stolen as well.
- peteretep 10y ago
  > I suspect most of them > would have gotten away > with it if they changed > the title a bit Cosine similarity over a corpus of published papers to find very similar ones would be an interesting exercise
brazzledazzle 10y ago
It's quite a stretch but perhaps they really believed in the research and didn't want it to fade into obscurity. Or an even bigger stretch: Perhaps there's a perception that American study populations aren't sufficiently reflective of Europeans so the goal was to make sure that what they thought was very valuable data couldn't be dismissed out of hand.
algesten 10y ago
I think the notion that the scientific community is mostly "intelligent and idealistic" is a stretch. The commercial pressures are as intense there (if not more?), as everywhere else in society. I also think this has given rise to a mentality where it's socially acceptable to "get away" with as much as possible. If you can do a big tax dodge and get away with, why not? If you can secure a great schooling for your kids by paying under the table for private tutors, why not? If you can have your house cleaned cheaply by a non-registered immigrant, why not? This mentality permeates all parts of our culture, and in academia with the "publish or perish" pressure, I could easily see why you would try to pass off someone else's work as your own. It's sad times all around.

sliken 10y ago

Many research papers are so obscure that approximately zero people site them. Yet if you are a tenured professor it's publish or perish and there are often significant incentives. I suspect most of them would have gotten away with it if they changed the title a bit. There are also sometimes incentives for when your paper is cited, thus citing your own papers... even if they were stolen as well.

peteretep 10y ago
> I suspect most of them > would have gotten away > with it if they changed > the title a bit Cosine similarity over a corpus of published papers to find very similar ones would be an interesting exercise

brazzledazzle 10y ago

It's quite a stretch but perhaps they really believed in the research and didn't want it to fade into obscurity. Or an even bigger stretch: Perhaps there's a perception that American study populations aren't sufficiently reflective of Europeans so the goal was to make sure that what they thought was very valuable data couldn't be dismissed out of hand.

algesten 10y ago

I think the notion that the scientific community is mostly "intelligent and idealistic" is a stretch. The commercial pressures are as intense there (if not more?), as everywhere else in society. I also think this has given rise to a mentality where it's socially acceptable to "get away" with as much as possible. If you can do a big tax dodge and get away with, why not? If you can secure a great schooling for your kids by paying under the table for private tutors, why not? If you can have your house cleaned cheaply by a non-registered immigrant, why not? This mentality permeates all parts of our culture, and in academia with the "publish or perish" pressure, I could easily see why you would try to pass off someone else's work as your own. It's sad times all around.