Integrity Commission Author: Billy Goodman

Early reaction to a long-awaited report on scientific misconduct finds members of the research community no closer to consensus on the controversial issue than they have been after previous efforts to elucidate the problem. In fact, the portion of the report eliciting the most contentious response has been the panel's definition of research misconduct itself.

Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, the medical journal based in London, calls the new report "a superb piece of analysis about the impact of misconduct on the scientific community." But Ralph Bradshaw, president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in Washington, D.C., characterizes it as "an attack on American science."

Ralph Bradshaw CRITICFASEB president Ralph Bradshaw calls the commission's report "an attack on American science." The 75-page report, "Integrity and Misconduct in Research," was prepared over the course of 18 months and 15 meetings by...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!