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Ask HN: What do you think about a law that criminalizes faking and doctoring data for their research? Clearly we need greater punitive consequences for these ty
by temporalparts 4y ago
Ask HN: What do you think about a law that criminalizes faking and doctoring data for their research? Clearly we need greater punitive consequences for these types of behavior that's becoming an epidemic in research.
- arbitrage 4y agoEffectively, it's the same reason why the death penalty does not deter crime from happening. The threat of career-ending shame & humiliation is remote and unlikely. As another poster said much further up-thread, there is more fraud going on that doesn't get detected. Criminal penalties in this realm are a bit draconian. More punishment & punity is not the answer.
- UweSchmidt 4y agoThat makes it even harder to call out bad science. You hate how your colleague cut corners but do you want to testify against them in court in your free time and have them sent to jail? I'd go the opposite way and give job security to anyone who is doing solid science to remove some of the weird incentives. There is upside to be amazing and win prizes or get better positions, but there is also space for people to "just" reproduce, or generally do important but non-glamorous stuff.