Deception in scientific research.

Abstract

Truth in science depends on the researcher's unbiased application of proven inves? tigative techniques to appropriate experiments. Unfortunately, reports of serious devia? tions from this ideal are becoming increasingly common. The media, the general public, and the scientific community have reacted with shock, disapproval, confusion, and loss of confidence in experimental results. Consequently, congressional committees have taken renewed interest in oversight of research. This article describes recent incidents of alleged misconduct in research and their detection, disclosure, and disciplinary actions taken against the researchers apparently at fault. It argues that stricter, more vigilant procedures to prevent fraudulent research from ever being published are needed. Corrective measures when fraud is discovered after publication must include due process in all investigations and careful retractions in the scientific journals. The article draws attention to several differences in the way that scientists and lawyers assemble and evaluate evidence. No statute of limitations protects the perpetrator of scientific misconduct. The maintenance of integrity in research is therefore a permanent professional responsibility. ?Patricia Woolf is the former co-director of the Ethics and Science Project, Sociology Depart? ment, at Princeton University. She will be teaching at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School in the Spring of 1989. This article is part of the interim report of the Project on Scientific Fraud and Misconduct of the American Association for the Advancement of Science?American Bar Associ? ation National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists. Since this report was initially prepared, a new dispute involving possible error in a published paper on transgenic research has developed into something of a cause celeebre leading even to congressional hearings. See Culliton, A Bitter Battle Over Error, 240 Sei. 1720(1988); Culliton,^! Bitter Battle Over Error (II), 241 Sei. 18 (1988); Scientific Fraud and Misconduct: Hearings Be? fore the Subcomm. on Human Resources and Individual Rights of the House of Representatives Comm. on Government Operations, 100th Cong., 2nd Sess. (Apr. 11, 1988); NIH Biomedical Grant Programs: Hearings Before the Subcomm. on Oversight and Investigations of the House of Representatives Comm. on Energy and Commerce, 100th Cong., 2nd Sess. (Apr. 12, 1988).