A leading scientist behind a bid to track scientific fraud and misconduct in Australia hopes it will shine a light on the issue.
If you consider the scale of the problem, the degree to which critical professions rely upon published journal articles to inform their practice, and how slow journals can be to retract compromised papers, you will have a troubled night as well. Australia is not the only country with problems, but we urgently need a national research integrity body that is not hostage to institutional interest for influence.
It is backed by leading research institute Neuroscience Research Australia and already has about 500 entries drawn from a database maintained by the US-based Centre for Scientific Integrity.
Retractions and scientific misconduct, once thought to be extremely rare, have come into sharp focus over the past decade as scientists have discovered more cases.
Ivermectin gained prominence as a treatment for COVID-19 based on a large number of fraudulent studies, some researchers argue.
One estimate suggests about one in every 50 published papers has evidence of deliberate manipulation; other scientists have even gone as far as claiming “most published research findings are false”.
