The following story appeared on Canada.com, September 18, 2011, written by Margaret Munro, Postmedia News:In an unusually creative case of academic misconduct, a Canadian scientist has been caught padding his resume and federal grant applications with studies that do not exist. Many researchers have been known to fake or fudge experimental data, but this professor brazenly claimed credit for conducting and publishing studies that, it turns out, “were not found in the published literature.”
Wow. Wow. How stupid and desperate was this guy? The external reviewer(s) on the grant application would have been quite knowledgeable on the literature and the applicant's prior 5 yr publication output. Within 2 minutes they would have been like "WTF? I don't recall reading that paper...or that one... etc. Hmm, Google Scholar search ... <1 second later> ... busted.
ReplyDeleteAcademic Derp.
ReplyDeleteI can see trying to wedge your name onto a paper, but never doing the study in the first place takes chutzpah to new levels.
My favourite bit is this:
ReplyDelete"While the council refuses to identify the scientist or university involved, NSERC officials say in one document that cutting off funding to the anonymous scientist “sends a strong message and is line with current standards and expectation of accountability and is consistent with NSERC’s ‘zero tolerance’ message.”
Not clear to me how punishing an anonymous prof sends a strong message. What are the chances NSERC just made the whole thing up as a sabre-rattling exercise to keep us plebes in line?
I'm not sure why they're protecting the guy's identity.
ReplyDelete