Fraud, fakery, or larceny is what ordinary people would call it. But in the sciencesâ?? refined venues the proper term is â??misconduct,â? and thereâ??s a lot more of it than official figures show, according to a report in Nature (19 June), â??Repairing research integrity.â?
Perhaps itâ??s nostalgia for my journalistic apprenticeship as a police reporter that draws me to such publications. But as much as I relish a crackdown on miscreants in lab coats, Iâ??m wary of this report, though it has impressive authorship: a University of Wisconsin official responsible for research policy, and a current and a retired official of the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI), which monitors scientific purity for the National Institutes of Health and other parts of the Department of Health and Human Services.