'Good' Chocolate Used In 'Bad' Science: Not an Isolated Occurance

Hi fellow research sleuths! As you know, we discussed the importance of being an 'informed consumer' today in class. As a real world example of this, we briefly discussed a published research article in which the author fabricated the results in order to highlight some of the many concerns surrounding the publication and distribution of modern research findings.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111101/full/479015a.html

However, scientific misconduct concerns expand beyond our 'chocolatey' example. The most well-
known instance of the widespread research fabrication occurred in Denmark in 2011, where noted Dutch social psychologist, Diederik Stapel, was accused of fabricating 'at least 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts' (follow the links below for details):

• http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111101/full/479015a.html
• http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/diederik-stapels-audacious-academic-fraud.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Finally, in light of recent scientific misconduct concerns, as well as concerns about the reproducibility of research results (which is not necessarily the result of scientific misconduct), the NIH is now taking steps to increase the reproducibility and reliability of published results:

http://www.nature.com/news/policy-nih-plans-to-enhance-reproducibility-1.14586

Clearly, these on-going issues highlight the need to be an informed consumer (as well as an ethical producer) of research.