Internet publicity of data problems in the bioscience literature correlates with enhanced corrective action.

ABSTRACT: Several online forums exist to facilitate open and/or anonymous discussion of the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Data integrity is a common discussion topic, and it is widely assumed that publicity surrounding such matters will accelerate correction of the scientific record. This study aimed to test this assumption by examining a collection of 497 papers for which data integrity had been questioned either in public or in private. As such, the papers were divided into two sub-sets: a public set of 274 papers discussed online, and the remainder a private set of 223 papers not publicized. The sources of alleged data problems, as well as criteria for defining problem data, and communication of problems to journals and appropriate institutions, were similar between the sets. The number of

SUBMITTER: Brookes PS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3994617 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature