Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2013 Mar;19(1):93-6. doi: 10.1007/s11948-011-9289-8. Epub 2011 Jun 26.
Scientific misconduct obstructs the advance of knowledge in science. Its impact in some disciplines is still poorly known, as is the frequency in which it is detected. Here, I examine how frequently editors of ecology and evolution journals detect scientist misconduct. On average, editors managed 0.114 allegations of misconduct per year. Editors considered 6 of 14 allegations (42.9%) to be true, but only in 2 cases were the authors declared guilty, the remaining being dropped for lack of proof. The annual rate of allegations that were probably warranted was 0.053, although the rate of demonstrated misconduct was 0.018, while the rate of false or erroneous allegations was 0.024. Considering that several cases of misconduct are probably not reported, these findings suggest that editors detect less than one-third of all fraudulent papers.
科学不端行为阻碍了科学知识的进步。它在某些学科中的影响仍然知之甚少，其检测频率也是如此。在这里，我研究了生态和进化期刊的编辑检测到科学家不端行为的频率。平均而言，编辑每年处理 0.114 起不当行为指控。编辑认为 14 起指控中的 6 起（42.9%）是真实的，但只有在 2 起案件中作者被判有罪，其余案件因缺乏证据而被撤销。可能有正当理由的指控的年发生率为 0.053，尽管被证实的不当行为发生率为 0.018，而虚假或错误指控的发生率为 0.024。考虑到可能有几起不当行为没有报告，这些发现表明编辑检测到的欺诈性论文不到三分之一。
