From The American Council on Science and Health
ACSH often reports on junk studies that employ dubious statistical methods — including our favorites: GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) and “data-dredging” — in order to produce valid-appearing studies crafted to yield predetermined results.
But it seems like some researchers are actually engaging in not just junk science, but conscious fraud. (emphasis added by me)
A report published last year in the journal Nature found a tenfold increase in the number of retractions of scientific papers in the last decade, and the alarming figure caught the attention of two microbiologists, Dr. Arturo Casadevall of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and Dr. Ferric C. Fang of the University of Washington, who decided to investigate this matter more closely. For their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, these two scientists collaborated with a medical communications consultant and looked at all retracted studies for the decade preceding May 2012. After digging through each and every one, they ultimately reclassified 158 papers as fraudulent, meaning they were published based on intentionally falsified data.
My Take - This has been going on for so long that it just amazes me that more haven't challenged the validity of researchers; especially when it comes to green issues. The greenies never saw a bad study that supported their views. The fraudulent Tulane study on endocrine disrupters is still defended by the fellow travelers of the movement. If you have doubt about how bad this is, please take some time and peruse the site Retractions Watch. RK
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