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Medical Research Fraud Prevalent for Decades

With all of these reliable authorities telling us that a considerable proportion of medical research is not reliable—especially when that research is backed by patent medicine companies or other large financial interests—what can we do to take care of our own health if we didn’t go to school to learn how to analyze medical research ourselves? We need to take as much responsibility as we can for our own health! Most of us go online to read about whatever health problem we may have, and the experiences others may have had dealing with those same health problems. OF COURSE, we can’t believe everything we read online any more than we can believe all published medical research, but from time to…

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Featured

 The Devastating Legacy of Lies in Alzheimer’s Science

Over the past 25 years, Alzheimer’s research has suffered a litany of ostensible fraud and other misconduct by world-famous researchers and obscure scientists alike, all trying to ascend in a brutally competitive field. During years of investigative reporting, I’ve uncovered many such cases, including several detailed for the first time in my forthcoming book.

 There’s far more scientific fraud than anyone wants to admit

Despite recent scandals of research misconduct and error, the academic world still seems determined to look the other way. Scientific misconduct has enjoyed some limelight lately. The president of Stanford, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, resigned last month after a series of investigations exposed serious problems in his research; an independent review of Tessier-Lavigne’s work found no evidence that he falsified data himself but concluded that his research failed standards “of scientific rigor and process” and that he failed to correct the record on multiple occasions.

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Articles of Interest

'Positive Results Are Better for Your Career'

In an interview, whistleblower Peter Wilmshurst discusses how pressure from Big Pharma corrupts research into new medicines and leads companies to cover up fraudulent data. He says he has no regrets about taking on an entire industry.

A scientific fraud. An investigation. A lab in recovery

Science is built on trust. What happens when someone destroys it?

Data fraud in clinical trials

Highly publicized cases of fabrication or falsification of data in clinical trials have occurred in recent years and it is likely that there are additional undetected or unreported cases.

Dishonesty and research misconduct within the medical profession

While there has been much discussion of how the scientific establishment’s culture can engender research misconduct and scientific irreproducibility, this has been discussed much less frequently with respect to the medical profession.

Fake research can be harmful to your health – a new study offers a tool for rooting it out

There are efforts underway across the globe to ensure that the highest standards of medical research are upheld. Research funders are asking scientists to publish all of their data so it can be fully scrutinized, and medical journals that publish new studies are beginning to screen for suspect data. But everyone involved in research funding, production and publication should be aware that fake data and studies are out there.

Fraud and deceit in medical research

Publication of medical research is the cornerstone for the propagation and dissemination of medical knowledge, culminating in significant effects on the health of the world's population. However, instances of individuals and institutions subverting the ethos of honesty and integrity on which medical research is built in order to advance personal ambitions have been well documented.

Medicine is plagued by untrustworthy clinical trials. How many studies are faked or flawed?

Investigations suggest that, in some fields, at least one-quarter of clinical trials might be problematic or even entirely made up, warn some researchers. They urge stronger scrutiny.

Research fraud: the temptation to lie – and the challenges of regulation

Most scientists and medical researchers behave ethically. However, in recent years, the number of high-profile scandals in which researchers have been exposed as having falsified their data raises the issue of how we should deal with research fraud.

There is a worrying amount of fraud in medical research

And a worrying unwillingness to do anything about it.

Why Scientific Fraud Is Suddenly Everywhere

Junk science has been forcing a reckoning among scientific and medical researchers for the past year, leading to thousands of retracted papers. Last year, Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne resigned amid reporting that some of his most high-profile work on Alzheimer’s disease was at best inaccurate. (A probe commissioned by the university’s board of trustees later exonerated him of manipulating the data).

World-first international guidelines weed out potentially critical scientific fraud

The number of retractions issued for scientific research articles in 2023 exceeded 10,000 — smashing annual records. To date, publishers have struggled to clean up a slew of papers with serious integrity concerns. Now a world-first framework for assessing research integrity in clinical guidelines, has been published today in the prominent international medical journal, The Lancet’s eClinical Medicine.

Resources

Retraction Watch

Tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process.