TO SEEK the truth about life, the universe and everything 鈥� the lofty goals of science. But it seems scientists cut corners just as much as the rest of us.
Questionnaires returned by 3247 researchers for the US National Institutes of Health reveal that bad behaviour is rife. A third confessed to at least one of the top 10 鈥渟ins鈥� listed.
Although less than 2 per cent owned up to fraud, falsification or plagiarism, less serious misdeeds were widespread: 15.5 per cent admitted changing the design, methodology or results of a study to suit a sponsor, and 6 per cent admitted suppressing data. More than a quarter owned up to inadequate record keeping, and 10 per cent confessed to inappropriately giving credit to an author (Nature, vol 435, p 737).
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鈥淢ostly, we鈥檙e not talking about fraud,鈥� says Brian Martinson of the HealthPartners Research Foundation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which conducted the survey. 鈥淭he kinds of behaviours we were observing are more corrosive than explosive.鈥�
