Academic Scandals: Research Misconduct
Research misconduct is one of the worst misdeeds a professor can do, other than
directly hurting someone. It leads to false information entering the body of
knowledge. It would not be accurate to claim it is common, but it seems to
happen more than you’d think. But research misconduct is a small fraction of the
total number of research studies. Now, research incompetence, carelessness, and
an obsession with spinning one’s research findings in an overstated manner are
far more common. There is no way I can document many cases of research
misconduct, as there are so many. I’ll just highlight a few that I think were
particularly egregious. But please, refer to the following sites for retracted
research, which occurs for a variety of reasons.
http://retractiondatabase.org/RetractionSearch.aspx
https://replicationnetwork.com/
When You Study Honesty:
Part I
This
scandal, which hit the Duke University Fuqua School of Business, involved one of
the most noted psychologists in the scholarly world. The author of several
highly successful books and a regular columnist at The Wall Street Journal,
this guy was admired by many, including myself. But when things didn’t add up in
a highly cited study he did on honesty, the shit hit the fan. It’s what happens
when your data look like they’ve been changed by the only person who had handled
it after it was sent to them by a corporation. And the distinguished
psychologist was the only one who handled the data. As is often the case, when
you come under suspicion, they start looking at more of your studies, and
indeed, there was a pattern of
things not adding up. Duke investigated and as with most academic
investigations, never made the results public, as far as we know. He still
teaches at Duke. And read Part II below.
When You Study Honesty– Part II
What
is it with business school psychologists who study honesty? As if the Duke story
isn’t enough, the noted Harvard Business School could not be outdone. Of course,
the fact that this Harvard lady and the Duke guy worked together on some
projects does make you think that data irregularities might be par for the
course. In her case, many of her co-authors who did not have access to the data
but trusted her are banding together and reviewing the accuracy of her work.
This story is still going on.
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184289296/harvard-professor-dishonesty-francesca-gino
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Last updated: May 12, 2024