Dec 09, 2023 15:00:00

What is the 'actual state of fraudulent papers' that can undermine the credibility of science?

Many scientific papers are produced day and night, and while they include papers that enrich our lives, they also include fraudulent papers that fabricate data or plagiarize from other papers. Dorothy Bishop, a professor of developmental neuropsychology at the University of Oxford, explains the reality of fraudulent papers and how a new master's program should be designed to prevent fraudulent papers from being produced.

BishopBlog: Defense against the dark arts: a proposal for a new MSc course

http://deevybee.blogspot.com/2023/11/defence-against-dark-arts-proposal-for.html

To date, many scientists have been arrested for research misconduct, such as

Paolo Macchiarini , John D'Arcy , and Elizabeth Holmes . Yet the scientific community is capable of self-correction and has continued to thrive even in the face of research misconduct.

However, with so many scientific papers being published today, it has become difficult to distinguish between the useful ones and the unhelpful ones. 'In many fields, the lack of a solid foundation for reliable discoveries has made it impossible to build cumulative science, and the situation is likely to get worse and worse,' Bishop said. ” I guess.

Bishop also warns about ` `research paper mills, '' for-profit organizations that create and sell fraudulent papers that appear to be genuine research.

Unlike individual scientists who fabricate data for their own accomplishments or to advance their careers, research paper mills systematically produce large numbers of fraudulent papers, some of which are published in peer-reviewed journals, Bishop said. It will be sold to the general public. It has been reported that some papers produced by research paper mills are difficult to detect as fraudulent.

These papers produced by Research paper mill are created using multiple compelling templates and may include various changes to the templates to make the paper original. In addition, in order to prevent it from being revealed that the text has been plagiarized from other papers, '

tortured phrases ' are sometimes inserted into the text, resulting in incoherent sentences that do not make sense.

Normally, such papers would be rejected as ``untrustworthy,'' but scientists who commit fraud use big data to create databases of ``genotypes'' and ``phenotypes.'' It is said that they are avoiding pursuit by using methods such as creating fictitious discoveries. Bishop worries that scientists who commit fraud could use the prestige gained from fraudulent papers to rise to positions of influence. Once they have gained influence, dishonest scientists publish more fraudulent papers in exchange for money, negatively impacting honest scientists. I also fear that scientists who become professors will create a new generation of dishonest scientists.

Until now, the scientific community's response to fraudulent papers has been inadequate. It has been

reported that in the scientific community, where there is a belief that ``everyone publishes papers with a noble purpose,'' there is little attempt to proactively check for fraud, and even if fraud is discovered, It has also been pointed out that it can take months or even years for a paper to be retracted.

In addition, the work to uncover fraud is mainly carried out by volunteers who are ``angry about the corruption of science and the proliferation of dishonest scientists.'' We specialize in finding out. On the other hand, scientists who are pointed out that their papers are fraudulent generally ignore the volunteers' points, destroy evidence, or criticize the volunteers' actions.

Concerned about the current state in which the work of exposing such fraud relies on volunteers, Bishop recommends ``nurturing a generation of researchers to eradicate fraud.''

Below are the topics that Mr. Bishop recommends that you should master in your master's program.

・How to find dangerous datasets
・How to identify shapes such as manipulated graphs
・Text characteristics of fraudulent papers
・Confirmation of scientific credibility
・Confirmation of site operator's authentication information and identification of poor site operator
・How to file a complaint if fraud is suspected
・How to protect yourself from legal attacks
・Cognitive processes that lead individuals to commit fraud
・Institutional practices that create perverse incentives
・Existence of “merchants of doubt” whose purpose is to discredit science

'The scale of the problem is such that we need the equivalent of a police force, rather than relying on volunteers as we have in the past, to investigate scientific fraud and take appropriate action when fraud is discovered,' Bishop said. , we hope to raise awareness of the need to set up a formal organization.'