A Discussion with Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky

Listen to this interview of Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky, cofounders of Retraction Watch. We talk about lots of things, retracting very few.

Ivan Oransky : “Accountability in science certainly does not come down to only retracting papers, because there are just lots of issues. And by the way, just to remind everyone, science is very much a human endeavor. It doesn’t exist outside of humans doing the science. I mean, facts exist, and there is truth out there, and we’d very much appear to be getting close and closer to it — that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the actual process, like, how do we learn these things. How — as this podcast more generally looks at — how does knowledge get known. Basically, epistemology. But that requires human beings. It requires human beings interpreting, talking and listening, collaborating, and so that’s one part of science that is really critical. Therefore, of course, the issue of accountability is multifactorial.”

The Retraction Watch database is here. You might also be interested in this article: “Repeat Offenders: When Scientific Fraudsters Slip Through the Cracks.” You can learn more about retraction here.