As far as I know, writing a research paper at all as an undergraduate is unusual. In the US, afaik, the purpose of undergraduate work is to learn the material

As far as I know, writing a research paper at all as an undergraduate is unusual. In the US, afaik, the purpose of undergraduate work is to learn the material of the field. A Phd program then teaches the student how to do research in a field and the student goes on to do actual research only then. An undergraduate would do a research paper as independent study or a special department class I think. With the provision that advisor is doing a lot of hand holding. So handing fake data to someone's whose effectively a complete newby and letting them process it and publish it as their first achievement, is really despicable as the article seems to describe.