Fighting Fraud in Science
We occasionally read about scientific fraud – things like fabricated measurement results – which is utterly unfair and also undermines the trust of the public in science and its results.
How to fight that problem?
- Do we need to tell young scientists more clearly that fraud is evil?
- Do supervisors have to stop trusting the results of their coworkers?
- Does the pressure to produce results inevitably favor fraud?
- Where exactly lies the responsibility, if something goes wrong?
Our Photonics Spotlight article on science fraud analyzes that carefully.
It suggests that the risk of fraud is close to zero where supervisors do a responsible job.
Relations to a more widespread problem – corrupt authorship practices – are also identified.
