Articles on Scientific Misconduct

"Experts advise whistleblowers to maintain objectivity, learn the rules, and get early legal counsel "..... "The ORI, part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, found in a 1995 survey that more than two-thirds of whistleblowers to scientific misconduct experienced some sort of negative consequences for their actions. Retaliation can include marginalization, firings, loss of promotions, and even death threats."

"Furthermore, scientists are not disinterested truth-seekers, they are more like players in an intense, winner-take-all competition for scientific prestige, or perhaps merchants in a no-holds barred market-place of ideas."

" Early on, when I had just begun to think and write about this subject, one of my very distinguished Caltech colleagues came to see me, and said, in effect, "Look, son, let me explain to you how all this works. Scientific truth is the coin of the realm. Faking data means counterfeiting the coin. That's a serious crime. All this other stuff you talk about, plagiarism, authorship problems and so on, that's just a matter of who's been handling the coins. That's much less important."

"Mathematician Alexandre Grothendiek, a professor at Montpelier University, wrote in a letter declining to receive the Crafoord prize that "... during the past two decades, the ethics of the scientific profession (at least among mathematicians) has declined to such a degree that pure and simple plundering among colleagues (especially at the expense of those who are not in a position to defend themselves) has almost become the rule, and in any case is tolerated by all, even in the most flagrant and iniquitous cases."