A commonsensical conclusion would be that misconduct in scientific research wouldn't be lucrative enough for anyone to partake in it at all. When a new experiment is conducted by a researcher, the results are generally pored over by colleagues, who then might try to duplicate the experiment. If the same results could not be obtained on subsequent tries, an immediate suspicion would be generated.
Nevertheless, misconduct does happen. In 2002, MSU graduate student Scott Doree was caught for fabricating a crime that never existed. He reported that two vials of a deadly strain of bacteria and his research notes were stolen from the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building, which launched an investigation by the MSU police and FBI. When the truth was eventually revealed that the vials and data were nonexistent, Doree wound up serving seven months in federal prison.
Such incidents are fairly uncommon, but not uncommon enough. According to an anonymous survey by Minnesota researchers in last month's issue of Nature, about 1 percent of scientists admitted to plagiarism, falsifications and fabrications that count as misconduct. One reason for this misconduct is fierce competition for grant money, according to the author of the study. Many scientists rely on these funds for salary support.
At MSU, investigating misconduct cases is the job of the University Intellectual Integrity Officer, or UIIO, which is currently filled by interim Loran Bieber.
In an ideal world, the university shouldn't have to have a watchdog against misconduct. The consequences of being caught - a permanently damaged reputation, among other things - should be enough. But thanks to a few bad seeds, MSU employs someone in this position. In the last year, there were 26 different issues which came to Bieber, although more than half were settled without formal allegations.
By and large, researchers working at MSU are doing good work, and we are glad for that. Naturally, the work done by professors and graduate assistants won't be correct 100 percent of the time, but at least the great majority of it will be honest.
Cases such as Doree's should help to keep future instances of misconduct low. Not only should this be an example for scientific researchers but for other areas of research as well.
Journalism is no exception. Jayson Blair, formerly of The New York Times, was caught plagiarizing a story from the San Antonio Express-News and resigned in 2003. Many other similar instances have occurred in the recent past.
In any area of research, there will be scrutiny holding fraud in check. We, The State News, need to do more to publicize incidents of fraud and plagiarism as a deterrent. From the student plagiarizing a paper for a 200-level ISS class right up to graduate researchers such as Doree, it's important to maintain that original and honest work is the only kind that is acceptable.
