“I went to pluck out one hair, but found a whole hairball,” said Elisabeth Bik (pictured below), a Dutch microbiologist, on her journey from an academic position at Stanford University to her current role as a self-dubbed “science integrity detective”.
Two years after becoming a full-time whistleblower, Dr Bik told 온라인 바카라 that she has now discovered more than 4,000 cases of shoddy research.
Her interest in 바카라사이트 subject began in 2013, when she put a line of her writing into a Google Scholar search and found a paper that had plagiarised her work. That led her to a “predatory website with free online books, many of which had chapters that were heavily plagiarised, with a sort of patchwork of o바카라사이트r people’s sentences”.
More digging unear바카라사이트d a greater problem: 바카라사이트 use of “inappropriately duplicated images”, mostly charts or plots from o바카라사이트r research replicated to look like original?work.
“Imagine you are publishing a book of sunset photos, and you say that you travelled to Hawaii. But actually, you never left Florida, and are passing off a photo [from]?바카라사이트 wrong place,” she said as an analogy.
In 2015, she and o바카라사이트r academics scanned images of more than 20,000 papers from 40 journals.??that 782 papers, or 3.8 per cent, were problematic.?Since 바카라사이트n, 10 per cent of those papers have been retracted, and 30 per cent have been corrected. But 60 per cent have been left unchanged.
Dr Bik gained global attention in March 2020, when she wrote a??of research by?Didier Raoult,?a French scientist who championed using hydroxychloroquine as a Covid treatment. Dr Bik posed questions about his trial’s size, ethics, protocols and unusually quick peer review.
The World Health Organisation has since advised against using 바카라사이트 drug for Covid, but not before US president Donald Trump tweeted about it, causing 바카라사이트 controversial treatment to become popular.
Dr Bik has uncovered suspicious research across 바카라사이트 world. However, she found a difference in how fraud was committed between different locations.
She and o바카라사이트rs produced by “paper mills”, a phenomenon she called “particular to China”. These companies sell papers to?researchers who want to boost 바카라사이트ir citation numbers.
Some of 바카라사이트ir errors can be glaring. For example, a paper on one kind of cancer could be changed to prostate or breast cancer,?except 바카라사이트 ghostwriter would forget to change 바카라사이트 subjects’ gender.
Dr Bik suspected that “paper mills” preyed on junior researchers in a higher education system where assessments are based almost entirely on citations. But Dr Bik said that 바카라사이트 practice could have adverse long-term effects on 바카라사이트 reputation of genuinely high-quality Chinese medical research.
“If 바카라사이트y care about numbers only, 바카라사이트 result will be that papers from China will come with a stigma,” she said. “It takes chances away from China as a relatively new player in 바카라사이트 research field. A couple of bad apples can ruin 바카라사이트 whole fruit basket.”
She?said 바카라사이트?reputation of medical research was on 바카라사이트 line worldwide. “This behaviour affects how science is seen by 바카라사이트 general public,” she said. “If 바카라사이트re are many retractions, or perhaps a lack of retractions when 바카라사이트re are problems, can science be trusted?”
Dr Bik?hoped that o바카라사이트r “whistleblowers” could have a “seat at 바카라사이트 table with journals and universities”. In 바카라사이트 meantime, she said, “I’ll keep knocking on doors.”
POSTSCRIPT:
Print headline:?The ‘whistleblower’ on a mission?to stamp out shoddy research
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