However, I have something fantastic that is above and beyond worth its own post. In fact, it's worth its own blog. And that's where there is a blog dedicated to it.
Retraction Watch is a wonderful blog run by science writers Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus and chronicles various and sundry recent retractions from scientific journals. I find this blog and its content so important that it gets a special place in my RSS feed right alongside the journals I follow. And believe me.... follow it, I do. Some retractions are relatively harmless, and while not completely excusable, they are forgiveable. Then, however, there are the retractions that involve doctoring of images, cutting/pasting of photos or text, and downright irreproducibility of data. These lead to, likely, more retractions, and then firings (Zhiguo Wang), and then possible stripping (Bengu Sezen) of Ph.D.s (Diederik Stapel).
Friends, I'm scared of getting scooped just as much as the next guy. However, I'm even more scared of scientific fraud. This makes me want to do things right in order to avoid having my name associated with retracted work. I imagine that after you retract (or your work is retracted FOR you), you feel much like this:
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| Found guilty of scientific misconduct? This will be a statue-y, nude version of you afterwards. |
Really. Go check out Retraction Watch if you haven't yet.
It is a most excellent blog, and I love that they follow-up on a lot of the stories (like any good researcher, I always like to see how things have progressed). Excellent suggestion.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good blog. But science journalists trying to write beyond bs reporting to the masses can be dangerous.
ReplyDeleteAnon, the Retraction Watch folks are not rookies at science journalism. The downside to PhDs trying to be journalists is that they can be too cautious. The more PhDs learn, the more humble they become about what they don't know - and it's difficult to find context for studies that way.
ReplyDeleteDoing what Retraction Watch does would be even harder for researchers - they have to understand context and not be afraid to make people mad, which is very diffcult for someone in science.