Whereas deceitful scientists were once subjected only to the disapproval of their peers, their activities may now invoke serious criminal and civil sanctions. Among these are civil "bounty hunter" provisions of the Federal False Claims Act, which permit private individuals to sue for a share of squandered federal funds. By substituting a financial incentive for the self-policing norms of the scientific community, this statute promises to have a negative impact on the way scientific research is conducted.
Research misconduct takes a variety of forms, any of which could potentially trigger legal liability. It is generally considered to be most serious when the actions constitute true scientific fraud--that is, a report of experiments never conducted, observations never performed, calculations never made. Such a fabricated report is rarely limited to imaginary numbers, charts, or graphs. The study usually will not be believed without physical evidence of the experiment. For the fraud to ...
