3 ms·

Note that I don’t condone the actions at all by this company or individual. However, this story demonstrates why the publish or perish model is so screwed up t

Note that I don’t condone the actions at all by this company or individual. However, this story demonstrates why the publish or perish model is so screwed up today. When your promotion, funding, livelihood are directly connected to positive research findings and publications in high impact journals, deception in the face of desperation will certainly happen. Ethics be damned. Frankly, this is one of the reasons I think I want to only do research part time, focusing the majority of my time on clinical work as a physician. My salary would not entirely or really even remotely be dependent on grants or publications, and I could just slowly build up on some projects. Is progress slower, could your project be scooped? Certainly, but it sure wouldn’t force me to falsify results to make publications more appealing. Who knows, though. Maybe everyone is susceptible to the rat race.

lumost 5y ago
The trend seems to be that academia is heading towards intentionally falsified results and unintentionally falsified results created due to common methodological flaws. The only groups which seem to be partially immune to this are the larger research collaborations with 10+ authors per paper. However even those struggle with group think and the need to push an agenda (tokamaks, amyloid plaques etc.).
refurb 5y ago
No, this was pure fraud for personal gain, nothing more. To blame the “publish or perish” model is no different than blaming the “its critical we meet quarterly earning” when financial fraud happens. Or blaming “if you fail the bar exam you can’t be a lawyer” when cheating occurs. This wasn’t “I’ll round this number down instead of up to meet statistical significance”, this was creating results out of whole cloth by image manipulation.
- greazy 5y ago
  the systems in place encourage this type of action. This happens regularly, does that mean all these people are selfish psychopaths? Or what's more likely that humans in a system designed to push and punish leads to fraud?
  - refurb 5y ago
    That’s a remarkable take. Asking people to be honest is unreasonable? Asking people to be truthful in conducting research is unreasonable? What’s next? Expecting people to not steal is “too much pressure” and pushing people to crime? Pretty sure society would crumble under your model.

lumost 5y ago

The trend seems to be that academia is heading towards intentionally falsified results and unintentionally falsified results created due to common methodological flaws. The only groups which seem to be partially immune to this are the larger research collaborations with 10+ authors per paper. However even those struggle with group think and the need to push an agenda (tokamaks, amyloid plaques etc.).

refurb 5y ago

No, this was pure fraud for personal gain, nothing more. To blame the “publish or perish” model is no different than blaming the “its critical we meet quarterly earning” when financial fraud happens. Or blaming “if you fail the bar exam you can’t be a lawyer” when cheating occurs. This wasn’t “I’ll round this number down instead of up to meet statistical significance”, this was creating results out of whole cloth by image manipulation.

greazy 5y ago
the systems in place encourage this type of action. This happens regularly, does that mean all these people are selfish psychopaths? Or what's more likely that humans in a system designed to push and punish leads to fraud?
- refurb 5y ago
  That’s a remarkable take. Asking people to be honest is unreasonable? Asking people to be truthful in conducting research is unreasonable? What’s next? Expecting people to not steal is “too much pressure” and pushing people to crime? Pretty sure society would crumble under your model.