Falsifying
scientific data
or manipulating the
scientific evaluation
process is a
serious problem.
Public policy could be
shaped by bogus data.
Fraud is widespread
in non-Western countries,
and among non-Western
scientists who immigrate
to the U.S.
Dutch social psychologist
Diederik Stapel has had
to retract 58 (so far)
scientific articles
in which he made up
or manipulated his data.
Many were politically
useful for leftists.
One retracted study
claimed a dirty, untidy
environment made
people more racist.
Another study claimed
people who eat meat
are more selfish than
vegetarians.
Microbiologist
Elizabeth Bik
just went public, a few
weeks ago, alleging
massive scientific fraud,
between 2004 and 2019,
among academics at
Annamalai University
in Tamil Nadu in India.
This may lead
to the retraction
of up to 200 papers
by microbiologists
at the university.
Scientists from some
countries are more
inclined to make up data
or corrupt the peer-review
process, than are
scientists elsewhere.
Many scientists research
extremely narrow fields,
meaning there are few
people in the world
qualified to peer review
their studies.
When scientists submit
an article to a journal,
they are often asked
to nominate potential
peer-reviewers, and
provide their email
addresses.
What could possibly
go wrong with that
procedure ?
(heh heh)
Many editors, even of
prestigious journals,
do not practice any
due diligence --
checking the names
of recommended
peer reviewers.
Corrupt researchers
invent a couple of
fictitious researchers
and provide emails
to which only they
have access.
Or they give
real researchers’
names, but create
a new, bogus email,
address only they
have access to.
They are then able
to "peer-review"
their own papers
and recommend
publication !
Retractions Due to
Fake Peer Reviews
The world leader is China.
Between 2012 and 2016,
276 studies by Chinese
academics were retracted
for fake peer review.
Taiwan -- 73 retractions,
Iran -- 65,
South Korea -- 33,
Pakistan --19,
India, 16.
When calculated as
fake peer review retractions
per capita, the most corrupt
country, by far, is Taiwan
(population 23 million),
then Iran, then South Korea.
Data Source:
The Economy of Fraud
in Academic Publishing in China,
by Mini Gu, WENR, April 3, 2019.
Be cautious
about trusting
scientific papers
authored by scholars
from these countries.
Author Mini Gu
( see above)
says in Northeast Asia,
and many other
"developing" nations,
many scientists are
“on commission.”
If they get an article
published in a
high-impact academic
journal, they get paid
much more than if it is
published in a
less prestigious
journal.
Without publishing
these articles
scientist salaries
would be very low,
They also paid
“per article,”
pushing them towards
quantity, over quality.
Western academics
must publish
a certain number
of articles
every few years
for their contracts
to be renewed,
but they also
get paid well,
without money
from the articles.
Asian corruption
ranges from
self-plagiarism—
presenting
the same paper
with a different name,
as though they were
two different papers.
Much worse is
making up data.
A useful list of papers
retracted for made up data
can be found at the website
Retraction Watch .
It lists the 32 scientists
who have had to retract
the most papers for
scientific fraud
of various kinds.
The website claims:
“We note that all but one
of the top 32 are men,
which agrees with the
general findings
of a 2013 paper
suggesting that men
are more likely to have
papers retracted for fraud.”
6 of those 32 scientists
are Japanese,
4 are Indian,
3 are Iranian,
3 are South Korean,
3 are from the USA,
2 are Taiwanese, and
2 are Chinese.
Some of these
Third World
scientists
were corrupt
when working
at US universities.
Why is there so much
scientific corruption
in high IQ and wealthy
Taiwan, Japan, and
South Korea?
I have no idea.