Category: Uncategorized

The Andrew Wakefield case

One of the best-known examples of data falsification is a study described in a 1998 Lancet paper with Dr. Andrew Wakefield as the lead author. In this paper, 12 children with autism and chronic enterocolitis were described, and these symptoms started immediately after MMR (Measles / Mumps / Rubella) vaccination in 8 of these children.

However, a 2004 investigation by Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer revealed concerning issues with patient recruitment and undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.

Here is a weekly digest of science integrity related articles. Also, check out Retraction Watch‘s Weekend Reads!

This is Part 3 of a series of 3, which also includes Part 1: Plagiarism, and Part 2: Falsification.

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I showed some examples of plagiarism and falsification in scientific papers, which the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) considers two of the three forms of Research Misconduct. Here, we will look at the third type of misconduct, fabrication. ORI defines fabrication as follows:

“Fabrication is making up data or results and recording or reporting them.”

Office of Research Integrity: Definition of Research Misconduct

This is Part 2 of a series of 3, which also includes Part 1: Plagiarism, and Part 3: Fabrication.

In Part 1 of this series, I showed some examples of plagiarism in scientific papers, which the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) considers one of the three forms of Research Misconduct. Here, we will look at the second type of misconduct, falsification. ORI defines falsification as follows:

“Falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.”

Office of Research Integrity: Definition of Research Misconduct

This is Part 1 of a series of 3, which also includes Part 2: Falsification, and Part 3: Fabrication.

The Office of Research Integrity (ORI), part of the USA Department of Health and Human Services, defines Research Misconduct on their website:

Let’s clarify that a bit more with some examples. In this blog post, I will discuss plagiarism.

Thanks for joining me!

I am Elisabeth Bik, microbiome and science integrity consultant, and this blog will be my new place to talk about science integrity. There might be posts about how to report scientific papers of concern, image issues in biomedical papers, plagiarism, data detectives, conflict of interests, “predatory publishers” (not my term), and many other issues.

I got a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands, and was a staff scientist at Stanford University, Scientific and Editorial Director at uBiome, and a Director of Science at Astarte Medical, all in California, USA.

In addition, I have been actively searching for image duplications in biomedical science papers, and I wrote several publications on this topic:

Also check out my other blog, MicrobiomeDigest.com, which is currently run by a fantastic team of volunteers. Here, you will find (nearly) daily posts with the latests scientific papers on host-associated or environmental microbial communities.

Science builds upon science. Science should be open for self-correction.