This really is quite frightening. An extremely influential paper in Alzheimer’s research that has been extensively cited since 2006, has been withdrawn for fraud. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by scientists in unproductive ways as a direct result of this influential paper.
The lead scientist responsible for the fraud has been defended by his university for years, but eventually when an additional 20 papers were questioned he finally resigned.
And then, a completely separate team of researchers at the same university have now been exposed as engaged in scientific misconduct.
The institutions where fraud is perpetrated frequently do not penalize these fraudulent researchers, because they attract massive funding and acclaim, so the incentive is to defend them. Which is why they are almost never fired and only after huge and sustained scandals spanning literally decades, feel compelled to resign, facing no legal repercussions.
The scientist who first exposed this particular Alzheimer’s fraud, said very plainly, that this is literally just the tip of the iceberg, and the level of fraud is widespread and overwhelming. She also noted, that the incentives to cheat are huge, while the chances of getting caught minimal. With institutions incentivized to conceal any misconduct being great, and no legal consequences for the fraud, it is a problem with no current solution.
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Every day here we post studies purporting to show all kinds of results and other than remarking that a study is from China, India, Iran, Egypt, we mostly accept papers from the USA at face value, and often base our health decisions on these. Hardly surprising, since billions are also spent as a result of this fraud and progress is painfully slow or practically nonexistent as in the case of Alzheimer’s.
I must say, these days when I see someone post a study, I do wonder if it’s legit, regardless of how distinguished the scientist or university, because we’ve seen the very heads of institutions be frauds, and their fraud enabled by their institutions and peers.
I keep wondering why it is that when a fraud is exposed, the scientist in question is not permanently banned from any further research, career over and facing prison, considering the financial swindle and public health harm. We wouldn’t tolerate this in baseball, why do we let this continue with no end?
These latest cases are from the University of Minnesota, but it really could be anywhere:
Alzheimer’s researcher alleged to have doctored images is leaving UMN
Quote:
“Rewards for fraud in science are high, while the chances of getting caught or repercussions are low,” Bik said. She believes that overall, the image alterations that get detected are “just the tip of the iceberg” of the actual fraud occurring in scientific research.
