It has been a difficult year for scientific integrity. The problem of scientific misconduct is occupying a disappointingly increasing amount of time in the research world and has reached the lay press. Misconduct requires ever growing vigilance, scrutiny, and at times forensic investigation, on the part of journals, editors, reviewers, readers, misconduct sleuths, and academic institutions.
Misconduct remains relatively rare, but as this short piece discusses its impact has been laid bare and accelerated by the pandemic and is being noticed by the mass media and the general public. We contend that pre-print servers have not created the problem, it is the cheats and charlatans that have. Paper mills and journals with little or no editorial standards haven’t helped. The mess is hurting research and harming the reputation of science. We need a reset that focuses upon research culture and the resourcing reflective practice not compliance with rules.
Unfortunately, scientific misconduct is proliferating. Last year, worldwide, more than 2,300 articles were retracted, an increase from just 38 in 2000.5 This may, in part, represent greater scrutiny and reporting, and it is fortuitous that only four in 10,000 articles overall are retracted.6 However the number of problematic if not fraudulent articles is known to be much greater than the number of retractions,5 and retracted articles often continue to be read and cited long after their retraction.7
Kharasch, E.D. (2021); Scientific Integrity and Misconduct—Yet Again. Anesthesiology 135(3) doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000003916
Publisher (Open Access): https://pubs.asahq.org/anesthesiology/article/135/3/377/116295/Scientific-Integrity-and-Misconduct-Yet-Again