3 ms·

Unless she is independently wealthy there would be a strong incentive for her to not admit the error if there was an expectation to hand the money back. Where i

Unless she is independently wealthy there would be a strong incentive for her to not admit the error if there was an expectation to hand the money back. Where is it supposed to come from?

danieltillett 6y ago
I am not suggesting she hand back the money already spent, just that she might think about handing what is left. I would hand back a grant that was given due to a false result that occurred because of my error. Julia should be praised for doing the right thing with the paper, I just think she should think about going further.
- Ididntdothis 6y ago
  I don't think so. I am not returning my salary when I screw up at work and I have made bad decisions that cost 100s of thousands. As long it comes from an honest effort mistakes are part of the game.
  - unishark 6y ago
    I think you missed the above poster's point. Big grants provide funding for multiple years. It can get cancelled rather than continued. I'm rather surprised it wasn't. They might also cease making payments that haven't been made yet in the current year. I know people this has happened to, purely due to govt shutdowns and such unrelated to anyone screwing up. It would be more like losing the remaining payments of a multi-year contract because it gets broken. Or in your analogy, like losing your job.
unishark 6y ago
There's no way to avoid such incentives here. Being allowed to keep the grant creates an incentive to publish incorrect results in the first place. "Gosh this seems too good to be true, but let's wait till the system has invested another million dollars in my career before investigating the process too closely".
- danieltillett 6y ago
  This is exactly what the current funding system encourages. If you want to be funded you are almost forced to pump out the papers as fast as you can with the bare minimum of checking.

3 ms·

Unless she is independently wealthy there would be a strong incentive for her to not admit the error if there was an expectation to hand the money back. Where i

by Ididntdothis 6y ago

Unless she is independently wealthy there would be a strong incentive for her to not admit the error if there was an expectation to hand the money back. Where is it supposed to come from?

danieltillett 6y ago
I am not suggesting she hand back the money already spent, just that she might think about handing what is left. I would hand back a grant that was given due to a false result that occurred because of my error. Julia should be praised for doing the right thing with the paper, I just think she should think about going further.
- Ididntdothis 6y ago
  I don't think so. I am not returning my salary when I screw up at work and I have made bad decisions that cost 100s of thousands. As long it comes from an honest effort mistakes are part of the game.
  - unishark 6y ago
    I think you missed the above poster's point. Big grants provide funding for multiple years. It can get cancelled rather than continued. I'm rather surprised it wasn't. They might also cease making payments that haven't been made yet in the current year. I know people this has happened to, purely due to govt shutdowns and such unrelated to anyone screwing up. It would be more like losing the remaining payments of a multi-year contract because it gets broken. Or in your analogy, like losing your job.
unishark 6y ago
There's no way to avoid such incentives here. Being allowed to keep the grant creates an incentive to publish incorrect results in the first place. "Gosh this seems too good to be true, but let's wait till the system has invested another million dollars in my career before investigating the process too closely".
- danieltillett 6y ago
  This is exactly what the current funding system encourages. If you want to be funded you are almost forced to pump out the papers as fast as you can with the bare minimum of checking.