4 ms·
Doesn't it seem very irrational to fabricate data in materials science? If your result is interesting, people will try to replicate it; it won't replicate, and
by canjobear 3y ago
Doesn't it seem very irrational to fabricate data in materials science?
If your result is interesting, people will try to replicate it; it won't replicate, and you'll have to explain why.
If your result is not interesting, people won't try to replicate it, but then you don't gain much by publishing it.
- sbalamurugan 3y agoThey think the real experiment will show what they concluded within some tolerance. They just don’t want to put in the time and effort to do it. they want to publish their hunch with fake data first to get the glory. For example, US census agency person for a county can just make up numbers based on his understanding of the place without actually doing a full survey. He believes that even if they check, it will be within reasonable tolerance and the final results will be similar. So he just sits at home keep making up numbers year after year. Until someday USPS opens a postoffice based on the numbers and get no customers causing a full investigation.
- lofatdairy 3y agoIronically one of the most famous fabrications was also material science[^1]. I'm not in the field so I don't have anything else to add but I suppose these retractions and scandals show that the scientific process is actually working as intended. [^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6n_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6n_scandal