example of deliberate fraud in (social) science

Has science taken a wrong turn? If so, what corrections are needed? Chronicles of scientific misbehavior. The role of heretic-pioneers and forbidden questions in the sciences. Is peer review working? The perverse "consensus of leading scientists." Good public relations versus good science.

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bdw000
Posts: 307
Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:06 pm

example of deliberate fraud in (social) science

Unread post by bdw000 » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:45 am

http://io9.com/diederik-stapel-recounts ... 1681477020

Even though this is about a social scientist, iirc this guy was very influential. These motivations could affect people of any field of study.

There is a link in the article to download the whole book.

bdw000
Posts: 307
Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:06 pm

Re: example of deliberate fraud in (social) science

Unread post by bdw000 » Sat Jan 24, 2015 1:18 pm

There are some real gems about academia and peer review here.

Most of the good stuff is around pages 60-100.

Some quotes (taken out of context! You need to read pages 60-101 approximately):

p.72: "I found it exciting to become part of the Grand Fellowship of Secret Procedures and to become part of the guild of successful researchers who put that extra care and detail into their experiments to ensure the greatest
chance of getting the anticipated results."

p.84: "Science is about impressing the judges."

p.93: "Science is about marketing."

p.95: "you rarely hear anything new at a conference. Researchers rarely throw interesting, fresh, new ideas into the
mix. The risk of public shaming and consequent damage to your reputation if it turns out you got something wrong is too great."

p.97: "Today’s scientists aren’t just treasure hunters loo king for hidden jewels; they’re also sales managers with objective publication targets to meet. Over time, the idea that I was a sales manager became a part of my thought processes and left an indelible trace on my mind. Like a junkie, I knew that I had to score. I’d gone into science out of a fascination for the content of the subject, but I found myself more and more often in situations where the
content wasn’t the most important thing, or in some cases wasn’t important at all."

p.100: "I nailed down every last corner of my experiments so that they could only produce one result"

p.101: "If it seemed logical, it must be true."

p.101: "When I found something strange, I changed the experiment and ran it again, until it worked. In some cases I did this four or five times."

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