Scientific misconduct (Fraud, falsification, fabrication and plagiarism)

Abstract

We live in a historic moment in which the boundaries between true and false become porous and the differentiation between fact and fiction is destabilized, for example, in the context of the so-called “fake news”. At a global level, social movements and in some cases even governments, have assumed denialist and even “anti-science” positions, as occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic or in the face of climate change. We also see a reduction in funding for research in several countries. Trust in science, as well as the credibility of the knowledge production process, has been called into question, making the issue of integrity crucial in the process of scientific research and academic writing. Although it may seem redundant and even repetitive, a categorization of what constitutes fraud in science was presented, which included fabrication and falsification of data as well as co-authorship by authority. They also referred to various types of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism. However, it has been argued that the excessive and reductive focus on fraud can make invisible a number of other topics of crucial importance with regard to integrity in scientific research. Among these absences are, for example, the power relations between the global North and the South in terms of knowledge production, as well as the premises for collaborative research based on honesty. At a global level, the intensification of the search for research participants, or rather their bodies, to carry out clinical trials, implies taking a critical look at the practices of these studies when they are implemented in the global South. Likewise, it is important to pay attention to the growing commodification of “life itself”, which concepts such as biocapital or bioavailability try to capture.

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