Honesty Is the Best Policy

False Prophets: Fraud and Error in Science and Medicine. Alexander Kohn. Basil Blackwell, New York, 1987. 240 pp., illus. $24.95. It cannot be said that False Prophets created false expectations. The subtitle on the dustjacket is "Fraud and Error in Science and Medicine." The principal jacket illustration is Thomas Wycks' painting of an alchemist in his laboratory amidst a hodgepodge of pots, flasks, books, apparatus and the trappings of arcane inquiry. The back cover carries a photo of a black mouse with a white patch posed against a laboratory coat and the caption "Summerlin's mouse". One of the intriguing cases discussed in this book." But the mouse on the cover is a black mouse with a white spot, not the white mouse onto which Summerlin inked a black spot. In short, an "error" mouse and not the "fraud" mouse. That confusion is closer to what the book conveys than its professed critical purpose, for it is an oddly mixed and occasionally confused compendium of brief anecdotes and rather more serious accounts of fraud in science. An anthology of research malpractice, error, self-deception and other misbegotten behaviors such as deliberate hoaxes, venality, carelessness, fiscal irresponsibility, malicious insinuations and plagiarism, it leaves much to be desired. The common threads linking these disreputable activities are scientists and science. But scientists themselves make a clear distinction between error and fraud. Error is acknowledged to be not only an inevitable but an important, indeed a natural part of the quest for knowledge. There is scarcely any opprobrium to getting it wrong if you do it right. Most scientists acknowledge that in order for any scientists to reach beyond the routine of normal research, some will reach beyond their grasp. The identification and correction of errors are among the engines that drive research. By contrast, fraud has other purposes and frequently diverts legitimate research into blind alleys; it unravels the fabric of trust that is essential to the cooperative enterprise that modern science has become. Although it may be difficult in some situations to distinguish between deliberate falsification and inadvertent error, it is possible and important to do so in principle. Whether or not they function consistently and effectively, institutional mechanisms to reduce the number and the significance of errors are an integral part of scientific research. Until recently there have been few social devices specifically designed for detecting and dealing with instances of fraud. It was, and in many quarters still is, thought to be destructive to collegial relations even to talk openly about such transgressions, much less to institute changes or maintain inspection systems. Scientists' reluctance to deal with the problem has made serious appraisal more difficult and reform less exigent. It has also made books on fraud in science harder to write. Kohn, editor of the Journal of Irreproducible Results, has assembled several relatively unfamiliar cases of fraud and most of those that have appeared on the front pages of major newspapers in recent years. Students of fraud in science can learn more details of several cases where Kohn has interviewed some of the participants. The analysis of fraud is challenging because documentation of research malpractice is most often incomplete or impossible to establish. Until recently there were no systematic investigations of cases that resulted in publicly available documents. There are still very few. Kohn appears to have based several of his accounts on recollections of scientists who are describing events that took place long ago or in situations where they themselves were not directly involved. When reliable information is scarce or poorly documented, it is extremely important for the author to alert readers to differences between fact and speculation, and to provide complete references to documents that do exist. It is also imperative that descriptions of discredited research differentiate clearly between what was actually done and what was alleged to have been done, and what level of confidence a reader ought reasonably to have in particular accounts. These distinctions are extremely difficult to draw because controversy often clouds the issues. Unfortunately, False Prophets does not provide a sufficiently dispassionate view. Serious readers will also be frustrated by incomplete references. Descriptions of episodes are diluted with homilies, condemnations, exonerations, loaded language and facile suggestions for corrective action. Clumsy language and poor editing compound the readers' confusion. What is one to make of phrases such as "...editorial decisions should not be mollified by personal knowledge..." and "[unreported incidents] simply provide a memento that dishonest people can be found in every walk of life" or "No true scientist, Lysenko never addressed any genuine scientific problem which he and his followers considered a scholastic obstacle to quick solutions in agriculture." The general lack of craftmanship and the failure to distinguish between error and fraud and other malpractice weakens the case Kohn might have made for revitalization of quality control mechanisms in science. Woolf is a research sociologist who has written on fraud in science. She lives in Princeton, NJ 08540.

Honesty Is the Best Policy

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