Direct Yearly Cost of Scientific Misconduct in the United States May Exceed $100 Million USD; Indirect Costs Likely to be Far Higher
It's a sad fact that scientific misconduct not only exists, but is rather common. From refusing to share original research data as agreed prior to publication, to technical medical editors who are indifferent to plagiarism, misconduct is swirling all around the scientific enterprise.
Scientific misconduct extends into active fraud as well. According to one study, over 14% of biomedical and clinical scientists have witnessed fraud, although less than 2% admit to having committed it themselves.
Such behavior affects more than the scientists directly involved. Other scientists may waste a lot of time and effort on research programs based on fraudulent results (think of all the scientists who tried to reproduce and build upon the research of physicist Jan Hendrik Schön on carbon-based electronics), and public health may be harmed if medical advice is based on false premises.
Scientific misconduct surely also costs a lot of money, both directly (e.g. investigative costs) and indirectly (e.g. lost grant money). Estimating the cost of scientific misconduct will underscore the necessity of efforts aimed at stamping it out early before it happens. _NASW_via_SimoleonSense
We are all drowning in a sea of information overload. It is impossible for anyone to master all of the new information in one's own field. How much harder it is to comprehend and properly integrate all of the new, significant findings which crucially affect us and everyone we know. And so, naturally, we and everyone else -- including scientists (and markets) -- become caught up in FLOOPS (feedback loops)__via_Gogerty_via_SimoleonSense.
Having once made the slightest commitment to a particular point of view or hypothesis, it becomes easier to integrate new information which supports that hypothesis. If we are not provided with honest data and feedback from the actual testing of the hypothesis against real world conditions, we are helpless to know what is likely to be true.
... the total cost of scientific misconduct includes those which are either measurable, intangible, or random. To arrive at a conservative estimate, they focused their study on the measurable direct cost of a specific case of misconduct at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (the identity of the accused scientist(s) was not revealed).If the scientific misconduct in question leads to large-scale public policy spending and regulations, which lead to $trillions re-distributed, mis-spent, and lost as a result of scientific fraud and deception, it is easy to see that the sky is the limit in terms of lost resources and destroyed lives, livelihoods, and human futures. Ironic, given the prodigal use of the "precautionary principle" in the service of the ongoing scientific fraud of anthropogenic climate doom.
An allegation of scientific misconduct was reported. This cost no money.
Next, an admininstrative review was undertaken. This cost $1000 USD.
Next, a formal inquiry was undertaken, during which a grant and email correspondence was reviewed. This cost $13,000 USD.
Next, laboratory equipment, notebooks, etc were confiscated, and physical and electronic data was duplicated to enable other scientists in the research group to continue with their work. This cost $10,000 USD.
After all this, the final investigation was conducted. The salaries of all those involved, related to their time spent in the investigation, totaled $514,500 USD.
Adding this all up, the sum direct cost of this case of scientific misconduct was between $500,000 and $550,000 USD. This does not include indirect costs, likely far exceeding the direct costs, including lost grant money, which came out to over $1 million USD.
When this direct cost is extrapolated to the 217 cases of scientific misconduct registered with the United States Office of Research Integrity, the estimated yearly direct cost of scientific misconduct in the United States comes out to be over $100 million USD._NASW
It is time for the people who are footing the bill to take their responsibilities of oversight seriously. At this time a relative handful of well-placed gatekeepers in government and private funding agencies and publications are given the power to decide what will be funded and what will be published -- and taken seriously by policy-makers and the public. This utterly top-down approach to the censorship of science has led to a situation of near-ubiquitous fraud and abuse -- especially in particular areas of science which have become politically enmeshed.
Are you mad as hell yet? Do you intend to keep taking it up the kazoo? The decision is entirely yours.
MORE: There is yet another developing scandal eroding all confidence in the climate orthodoxy, known as Satellite-Gate. Large problems with data integrity of US government climate satellites have been ignored for years -- problems which could introduce temperature errors of up to 10 to 15 degrees! Sloppiness and outright fraud in the ranks of climate science is apparently not uncommon. The ultimate cost to the world may well rise into the $trillions before these "scientists" and their enablers in government, academia, the media, and inter-governmental agencies are forced to give an account of their misdeeds.
No comments:
Post a Comment