2018 | News Articles on Scientific Practice and Scientific Dysfunction
January:
How reliable are scientific studies? (Cambridge University Press, January 2, 2018)
Why Scientists Need to do More about Research Fraud (The Guardian, January 4, 2018)
Make replication studies ‘a normal and essential part of science,’ Dutch science academy says (Science, January 16, 2018)
Easy preregistration will benefit any research (Nature, January 22, 2018)
Nobel laureate suggests he could resign from leadership post over colleague’s bogus paper (Science, January 23, 2018)
Who Reports More Misconduct: Scientists in Industry or Academia? (Retraction Watch, January 30, 2018)
Can scientists agree on a code of ethics? (Big Think, January 30, 2018)
February:
Meet the ‘data thugs’ out to expose shoddy and questionable research (Science, February 14, 2018)
Making Science Transparent By Default; Introducing the TOP Statement (Center for Open Science, February 15, 2018)
Artificial Intelligence Faces Reproducibility Crisis (Science, February 16, 2018)
Prestigious Science Journals Struggle to Reach Even Average Reliability (Frontiers, February 20, 2018)
How to make replication the norm (Nature, February 21, 2018)
A code of ethics to get scientists talking (Nature, February 27, 2018)
March:
How (and Whether) to Teach Undergraduates About the Replication Crisis in Psychological Science (Sage Journals, March 11, 2018)
Caught our Notice: Voinnet Co-Author Issues Another Correction (Retraction Watch, March 16, 2018)
Scientists examine reproducibility of research issues and remedies (Science X, March 19, 2018)
Who might be spying on your tweets in the name of science? (CU Boulder Today, March 21, 2018)
Duke’s Mishandling of Misconduct Prompts New U.S. Government Grant Oversight (Science, March 23, 2018)
What is the impact of retractions in science? (Elephant in the lab, March 26, 2018)
Cancer Researcher at Ohio State University resign following multiple misconduct findings (Science, March 30, 2018)
April:
For Watchdog Scientists, Using Software to Fight Dubious Cancer Research (Undark, April 2, 2018)
Hundreds of Researchers Are Trying to Replicate High-Profile Psychology Studies (Buzzfeed, April 3, 2018)
Facebook data: why ethical reviews matter in academic research (The Conversation, April 4, 2018)
Why the Ohio State University decided to go public about misconduct (Science, April 5, 2018)
India creates unique tiered system to punish plagiarism (Science, April 9, 2018)
Infamous Case of Fraud by Protein Crystallographer Ends in 10-year Funding Ban (Retraction Watch, April 10, 2018)
A real-life Lord of the Flies: the troubling legacy of the Robbers Cave experiment (The Guardian, April 16, 2018)
Comment on the Irreproducibility Crisis: Daniele Fanelli (National Association of Scholars, April 19, 2018)
Science’s ‘reproducibility crisis’ is Now Being Used as Political Ammunition (Wired, April 20, 2018)
Comment on the Irreproducibility Crisis: Henry H. Bauer (National Association of Scholars, April 25, 2018)
Many results in microeconomics are shaky (The Economist, April 26, 2018)
May:
The Judgment Bias Task: A flexible method for assessing individual differences in social judgment biases (ScienceDirect, May 2018)
Q&A Felicitas Hesselmann: Vague and varied retractions point to weakness in the scientific community (Nature Index, May 1, 2018)
Comment on The Irreproducibility Crisis: John Staddon (National Association of Scholars, May 2, 2018)
When is ‘Failure to Replicate’ a Problem, and for Who? (Forbes, May 7, 2018)
What Can Be Done to Fix the Replication Crisis in Science? (Enago Academy, May 9, 2018)
A Study in Perception: Feelings cause… feelings (National Association of Scholars, May 10, 2018)
Journal Retracts Paper Claiming Neurological Damage from HPV Vaccine (Science, May 11, 2018)
Zeke Hausfather on Climate Science Archiving (National Association of Scholars, May 14, 2018)
David Randall: A Brief Reply to Zeke Hausfather (National Association of Scholars, May 15, 2018)
Nine pitfalls of research misconduct (Nature, May 16, 2018)
Give every paper a read for reproducibility (Nature, May 16, 2018)
Bipartisan Outrage as EPA, White House Try to Cover Up Chemical Health Assessment (Union of Concerned Scientists, May 16, 2018)
What Took More Than Five Years? Elservier Retracts 20 Papers By World’s Most Prolific Fraudster (Retraction Watch, May 17, 2018)
Irreproducibility and Climate Science (National Association of Scholars, May 17, 2018)
Research Fraud: How Journals Should Address It (Enago Academy, May 21, 2018)
Data Fabrication & Reproducibility: How Triangulation Offers Novel Solutions (Enago Academy, May 21, 2018)
Using Medicine and Science to Improve the Quality of Life (The New York Times, May 24, 2018)
10 Types of Scientific Misconduct (Enago Academy, May 28, 2018)
June:
Let’s Stop Talking About The ’30 Million Word Gap’ (nprEd, June 1, 2018)
Why Rich Kids Are So Good at the Marshmallow Test (The Atlantic, June 1, 2018)
The Ideal Subjects for a Salt Study? Maybe Prisoners (The New York Times, June 4, 2018)
With Federal Funding for Science on the Decline, What’s the Role of a Profit Motive in Research? (The Conversation, June 5, 2018)
The ‘marshmallow test’ said patience was a key to success. A new replication tells us s’more (Vox, June 6, 2018)
China is Genetically Engineering Monkeys with Brain Disorders (The Atlantic, June 8, 2018)
China introduces sweeping reforms to crack down on academic misconduct (Nature, June 8, 2018)
Review needs a revision (Elephant in the Lab, June 11, 2018)
China sets a strong example on how to address scientific fraud (Nature, June 12, 2018)
Following charges of flawed statistics, major medical journal sets the record straight (Science, June 13, 2018)
Science Says: What happens when researchers make mistakes (The Seattle Times, June 13, 2018)
Scientific Sleuthing for Reproducible Results (Phys Org, June 14, 2018)
Promoting good science practice The Norwegian case (Elephant in the Lab, June 18, 2018)
How a Flood of Corporate Funding Can Distort NIH Research (The Washington Post, June 22, 2018)
In Nigeria, a battle against academic plagiarism heats up (Science, June 27, 2018)
Disgraced trachea surgeon – and six co-authors – found responsible for misconduct (Nature, June 27, 2018)
July:
Scientists Rarely Admit Mistakes. A New Project Wants to Change That (Undark, July 2, 2018)
Teaching the Craft, Ethics, and Politics of Field Experiments (Freedom to Tinker, July 3, 2018)
Hidden Conflicts? Pharma payments to FDA advisers after drug approvals spark ethical concerns (Science, July 5, 2018)
Beware those scientific studies—most are wrong, researcher warns (Science X, July 5, 2018)
Has the tide turned towards responsible metrics in research? (The Guardian, July 10, 2018)
MPs want new watchdog to root out research misconduct (The Guardian, July 10, 2018)
We need more investigations into research misconduct (The Guardian, July 11, 2018)
To Reinvent Peer Review, We Must Reinvent How We Pay Peer-Reviewers Back (The Wire, July 11, 2018)
William McBride, Who Warned About Thalidomide, Dies at 91 (The New York Times, July 15, 2018)
Psychology Itself Is Under Scrutiny (The New York Times, July 16, 2018)
New data red tape could hamper international research (University World News, July 20, 2018)
Scientific Whistleblowing: When Should a Researcher Call for a Retraction? (Undark, July 24, 2018)
Monsanto Accused of Fraudulent Data in Roundup Cancer Trial (Courthouse News Service, July 27, 2018)
Plan to replicate 50 high-impact cancer papers shrinks to just 18 (Science, July 31, 2018)
August:
Rectify biased interpretation of science history (Nature, August 1, 2018)
Students allege inhumane treatment of lab animals at U of C’s psychology department (CBC, August 7, 2018)
India cracks down on plagiarism at universities (Nature, August 9, 2018)
Scientists report political meddling, self-censorship (GreenWire, August 14, 2018)
Tide of lies: Researcher at the center of an epic fraud remains an enigma to those who exposed him (Science, August 17, 2018)
Promoting Open Science to Increase the Trustworthiness of Evidence in Special Education (Sage Journals, August 21, 2018)
Many Analysts, One Data Set: Making Transparent How Variations in Analytic Choices Affect Results (Sage Journals, August 23, 2018)
High-profile journals put to reproducibility test (Nature, August 27, 2018)
Evaluating the replicability of social science experiments in Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015 (Nature, August 27, 2018)
Credibility is our currency: conflicts of interest and research misconduct (Biology Fortified, August 27, 2018)
India targets universities in predatory-journal crackdown (Nature, August 28, 2018)
Opening up peer review (Nature, August 29, 2018)
Ethics dumping: the exploitative side of academic research (The Guardian, August 31, 2018)
September:
Universities are worse than drug companies about reporting clinical trail failures (Science, September 12, 2018)
Austrian agency shows how to tackle scientific misconduct (Nature, September 19, 2018)
Reboot undergraduate courses for reproducibility (Nature, September 19, 2018)
“Journalologists” use scientific methods to study academic publishing. Is their work improving science? (Science, September 19, 2018)
This research group seeks to expose weakness in science–and they’ll step on some toes if they have to (Science, September 20, 2018)
More and more scientists are preregistering their research. Should you? (Science, September 21, 2018)
Toward a more scientific science (Science, September 21, 2018)
University says prominent food researcher committed academic misconduct (Nature, September 21, 2018)
Making research integrity a priority (The Ohio State University, September 27, 2018)
October:
What “data thugs” really need (Nature, October 3, 2018)
Ghost authorship haunts industry-funded clinical trials (Nature, October 9, 2018)
Was cancer scientist fired for challenging lab chief over authorship? (Science, October 9, 2018)
Debate over misconduct stalls Egyptian clinical trials law (ScieDev.Net, October 17, 2018)
Watch dogs: Scientific integrity at Science Advances (Science Advances, October 17, 2018)
Rethinking retraction (Science, October 26, 2018)
A scientist’s fraudulent studies put patients at risk (Science, October 26, 2018)
One publisher, more than 7000 retractions (Science, October 26, 2018)
He Promised to Restore Damaged Hearts. Harvards Says His Lab Fabricated Research (The New York Times, October 29, 2018)
1 In 4 Statisticians Say They Were Asked To Commit Scientific Fraud (American Council on Science and Health, October 30, 2018)
Savvy leadership promotes ethical science (Nature, October 31, 2018)
November:
Single-molecule magnet controversy highlights transparency problems with U.K. research integrity system (C&EN, November 2, 2018)
Meet the people busting scientists who fake images in research papers (The Next Web, November 6, 2018)
Cornell Launches 3rd Investigation Into Brian Wansink’s Research Misconduct (The Cornell Daily Sun, November 6, 2018)
Be open about drug failures to speed up research (Nature, November 13, 2018)
Widespread plagiarism detected in many medical journals based in Africa (Nature, November 16, 2018)
Replication failures in psychology not due to differences in study populations (Nature, November 19, 2018)
Duke University to settle case alleging researchers used fraudulent data to win millions in grants (Science, November 19, 2018)
The double standard of retractions (The Varsity, November 25, 2018)
Industry is more alarmed about reproducibility than academia (Nature, November 28, 2018)
December:
How sure are you of your result? Put a number on it (Nature, December 4, 2018)
Psychology’s replication crisis has made the field better (FiveThirtyEight, December 6, 2018)
Reducing Social Judgement Biases May Require Identifying the Potential Source of Bias (Sage Journals, December 6, 2018)
Research misconduct penalties extended into other areas (University World News, December 8, 2018)
Science in hand: how art and craft can boost reproducibility (Nature, December 10, 2018)
The integrity of our research depends on the full disclosure of industry relationships (AAMCNEWS, December 11, 2018)
Illinois Regulators Are Investigating a Psychiatrist Whose Research With Children Was Marred by Misconduct (Propulica Illinois, December 12, 2018)
UK forensic lab misconduct results in dozens of convictions being overturned (ChemistryWorld, December 13, 2018)
China introduces “social” punishments for scientific misconduct (Nature, December 14, 2018)
Sometimes a failure to replicate a study isn’t a failure at all (ScienceNews, December 16, 2018)
The role of big data in science’s reproducibility crisis (Pacific Standard, December 17, 2018)
Many Labs 2: Investigating Variation in Replicability Across Samples and Settings (Sage Journals, December 24, 2018)
Disgraced CU scientist debarred after falsifying data (CU News, December 26, 2018)
Richard Smith: Amateurism still flourishing in scientific journals (The BMJ Opinion, December 31, 2018)