Edward Tenner compares data fabricators to Ponzi schemers:
Tom Bartlett at the Chronicle of Higher Education, outlining the techniques of the Dutch psychology professor Diederik Stapel who has admitted fabricating data, makes scientific fraud sound a lot like Madoff-style financial deception: both include social networking, stonewalling disclosure, indignation when questioned … Retractions of scientific papers have soared in 9 years from 22 to 339, and the more prestigious the journal, the greater the number of retractions — possibly because those papers receive more attention, but also because the rewards of acceptance are so much greater. The New York Times reports that 70 percent of psychology researchers responding anonymously to a survey admitted "cutting some corners" in reporting data.
(Image of Bernie Madoff by Flickr user Adobe by Chaos)
The Dish 