ScienceGeist

More than 120 researchers and medical professionals from around the world have written an open letter to the editor of the Lancet raising serious concerns about a large and widely publicised global study that prompted the World Health Organisation to halt several Covid-19 clinical trials.

The Cummings saga has made it plain that scientific advisers are shielding the government's collapsing reputation on coronavirus, says Lancet editor Richard Horton.

Elisabeth Bik quit her job to spot errors in research papers - and has become the public face of image sleuthing.

Some scholars and academics wrongly ascribe scientists' legitimate disagreements about Covid-19 to ignorance or questionable political or other motivations.

For his Covid-19 work, the respected Stanford physician and scientist John Ioannidis is being accused of the same bad science he has criticized.

Admitting scientific errors is hard. It's also important.

When science is viewed in isolation from the past and politics, it's easier for those with bad intentions to revive dangerous and discredited ideas.

Online sleuths have discovered what they suspect is a paper mill that has produced more than 400 scientific papers with potentially fabricated images. Some journals are now investigating the papers.

The virus doesn’t follow the news and doesn’t care about Twitter. This article proposes that reporting should distinguish between at least three levels of information reliability.

Investigation finds that biophysicist Kuo-Chen Chou repeatedly suggested dozens of citations be added to papers.

The authors of LERU's new paper on research integrity - Inge Lerouge and Ton Hol - discuss trust in science and how to earn it.

McGill professor resigns over university's repeated votes to keep investing in fossil fuels.

A tool that focuses on papers - not researcher behaviour - can help readers, editors and institutions assess which publications to trust.

Quarterly updates on scientific integrity in the US nearly three years into the Trump administration.

A swift increase in scientific productivity has outstripped the country's ability to promote rigour and curb academic misconduct; it is time to seize solutions.

The Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) on Research Integrity, which forms the basis of this report, was carried out between July 2018 and June 2019 by a dedicated Policy Support Facility (PSF) panel consisting of four independent experts and twelve countries.

To combat academic dishonesty, focus on educational systems and not just individual offenders, says Tracey Bretag.

Universities worry about protecting privacy as they confront the growing problem of harrassment.

Imperial's new conference policy puts guidance on promoting equality, diversity and inclusion at the forefront.

Image manipulation is nothing new, but its application for scientific and medical fraud is leaving lives and livelihoods at stake.

Democrats drop some provisions to gain Republican backing and improve chances of final passage of the scientific integrity bill.

Millions of Flickr images were sucked into a database called MegaFace. Now some of those faces may have the ability to sue.

Numerous recommendations and guidelines aim to improve the quality, timeliness and transparency of medical publications. However, these guidelines use ambiguous language that can be challenging to interpret, particularly for speakers of English as a second language. Cultural expectations within the Asia-Pacific region raise additional challenges and several studies have suggested that awareness and application of ethical publication practices in the Asia-Pacific region is relatively low compared with other regions. However, guidance on applying ethical publication practice guidelines in the Asia-Pacific region is lacking. This commentary aims to improve publication practices in the Asia-Pacific region by providing guidance on applying the 10 principles of the Good Publication Practice 3 (GPP3) guidelines and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship. Recommendations are provided for encore presentations, applying the ICMJE authorship criteria in the context of regional cultural expectations, and the role of study sponsors and professional medical writers. Ongoing barriers to compliance with guidelines are also highlighted, and additional guidance is provided to support authors submitting manuscripts for publication. The roles of regional journals, regulatory authorities and professional bodies in improving practices are also discussed.

"We are at a crisis point," according to a new report from the highly respected Brennan Center for Justice, "with almost weekly violations of previously respected safeguards."

Nonpartisan taskforce of ex-government officials reports 'almost weekly violations' of norms meant to safeguard objective research.

The answer bears on whether a study about lionfish social behavior, published in Biology Letters in 2014, was fabricated.

Carlos Lopez-Otin Nature is rescinding an award to a Spanish researcher whose group has at least nine retractions for problems with their published images. 

The primary goal of research is to advance knowledge. For that knowledge to benefit research and society, it must be trustworthy. Trustworthy research is robust, rigorous and transparent at all stages of design, execution and reporting. The authors developed the Hong Kong Principles (HKP) with a specific focus on the need to drive research improvement through ensuring that researchers are explicitly recognized and rewarded for behavior that leads to trustworthy research. 

Study investigated 19 topics related to transparency in reporting and research integrity. Only three topics were addressed in more than one third of scientific journals' Instructions to Authors.

In the past month, PLOS ONE and Transplantation have retracted fifteen studies by authors in China because of suspicions that the authors may have used organs from executed prisoners.