Editorial Office, European Heart Journal, Zurich Heart House, Moussonstreet 4, 8091 Zürich, Switzerland.
Eur Heart J. 2013 Apr;34(14):1018-23. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/eht063. Epub 2013 Mar 13.
Science has made enormous achievements for our understanding of the world and for everyday life: we now know that we live on a spherical planet of the solar system, we understand the origin of the species, we can take a train, survive myocardial infarction, and fly to the moon. This has been made possible thanks to a persistent search for truth by great scientists and the scientific community at large. Our assumptions were often wrong, but the scientific process advanced by a productive interplay of conjectures and refutations. As in any profession, there is misconduct, i.e. sloppiness, plagiarism up to falsification, or even fabrication of data. Although eventually fraudulent science has and will be disproved, it is morally inappropriate, damages the reputation of research and journals in which its products are published, may endanger patients, and misuses grant money of federal and private institutions. Thus, as editors and readers, we should be aware of it based on its typical pattern, but we must avoid an atmosphere of distrust, as trust is the essence of scientific exchange and progress.
我们现在知道我们生活在太阳系的一个球形行星上，我们了解了物种的起源，我们可以乘坐火车、幸存心肌梗死和飞往月球。这要归功于伟大的科学家和整个科学界对真理的不懈追求。我们的假设经常是错误的，但科学的发展是通过推测和反驳的良性互动实现的。与任何职业一样，也存在不端行为，即马虎、抄袭，甚至伪造数据。尽管最终欺诈性科学已经并将被证明是错误的，但它在道德上是不合适的，会损害研究和发表其产品的期刊的声誉，可能会危及患者，并滥用联邦和私人机构的拨款。因此，作为编辑和读者，我们应该根据其典型模式意识到这一点，但我们必须避免不信任的氛围，因为信任是科学交流和进步的本质。
