Misconduct:
I recently read a book by regular Adventures in Ethics and Science commenter Solomon Rivlin. Scientific Misconduct and Its Cover-Up: Diary of a Whistleblower is an account of a university response to allegations of misconduct gone horribly wrong. I'm...
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Posted on June 26, 2007 2:46 PM • 28 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In my last post, I examined the efforts of Elizabeth Goodwin's genetics graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to deal responsibly with their worries that their advisor was falsifying data. I also reported that, even though they did everything...
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Posted on June 6, 2007 12:35 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the big ideas behind this blog is that honest conduct and communication are essential to the project of building scientific knowledge. An upshot of this is that people seriously engaged in the project of building scientific knowledge ought...
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Posted on June 5, 2007 10:00 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
My recent post on the feasibility (or not) of professionalizing peer review, and of trying to make replication of new results part of the process, prompted quite a discussion in the comments. Lots of people noted that replication is hard...
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Posted on May 16, 2007 5:35 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
An important part of the practice of science is not just the creation of knowledge but also the transmission of that knowledge. Knowledge that's stuck in your head or lab notebooks doesn't do anyone else any good. So, scientists are...
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Posted on April 26, 2007 3:52 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Abi at nanopolitan nudged me to have a look at Nature's recent article on what has become of targets of recent scientific fraud investigations. He notes that, interspersed with a whole bunch of poster boys for how not to do...
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Posted on January 25, 2007 5:27 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Yesterday, I recalled MIT's dismissal of one of its biology professors for fabrication and falsification, both "high crimes" in the world of science. Getting caught doing these is Very Bad for a scientist -- which makes the story of Luk...
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Posted on October 31, 2006 10:32 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Just over a year ago, MIT fired an associate professor of biology for fabrication and falsification. While scientific misconduct always incurs my ire, one of the things that struck me when the sad story of Luk Van Parijs broke was...
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Posted on October 30, 2006 10:22 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Things have been busy here, but there are some interesting stories I've been watching that I thought I should mention (as well as the usual fodder for rants, and a cartoon series that might be funny, if it's not just...
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Posted on October 19, 2006 12:34 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
From time to time I get emails asking for advice dealing with situations that just don't feel right. Recently, I've been asked about the following sort of situation: You're an undergraduate who has landed an internship in a lab that...
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Posted on August 13, 2006 12:51 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A long time ago, I blogged about Dr. Eric T. Poehlman, formerly of the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He's no longer there because he was caught falsifying and fabricating data in the "preliminary studies" sections of numerous grant...
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Posted on June 29, 2006 1:36 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I should have known it would come to this. A week into our ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose drive to raise money for schools, the warm spirit of pan-science-harmony has started to erode. An anonymous source has come into possession of the text...
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Posted on June 23, 2006 7:34 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Occasionally I get email asking for advice in matters around responsible conduct of research. Some readers have related horror stories of research supervisors who grabbed their ideas, protocols, and plans for future experiments, either to give them to another student...
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Posted on June 12, 2006 5:49 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Do you ever feel like hearing me rattle on instead of just reading it? Here's your chance! You can listen to the first episode of the ScienceBlogs podcast, in which I speak with Katherine Sharpe about the evils of plagiarism...
Posted on May 11, 2006 12:30 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Catching up on news that broke while I was doing stuff: the results of the University of Pittsburgh investigation of Gerald Shatten's conduct are out. As reported in the New York Times: Dr. Gerald P. Schatten, a biologist at the...
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Posted on February 14, 2006 12:45 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I'm hammering away at the next edition of Tangled Bank (going up tomorrow) -- plus, you know, teaching and stuff -- but I wanted to give you a little something to work on. From New Scientist: YOU could be forgiven...
Posted on January 31, 2006 11:29 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) is an assistant professor of philosophy at San Jose State University. Before becoming a philosopher, she earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. Email her at dr.freeride@gmail.com.
