The New York Times highlights the belief of the editor of the journal Infection and Immunity, Ferric C. Fang, that a ten-fold increase in the number of retractions over the past ten years is a symptom of "a dysfunctional scientific climate". And in an opinion piece in Nature, the co-director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University, Daniel Sarewitz, speaks darkly of "alarming cracks" in the scientific edifice which are eroding public trust.
Dr Fang recently issued a call for root-and-branch reform in an eloquent editorial in his journal.
"The present system," he writes, "provides ... potent incentives for behaviors that are detrimental to science and scientists." "You can't afford to fail, to have your hypothesis disproven," Dr. Fang told the Times. "It's a small minority of scientists who engage in frank misconduct. It's a much more insidious thing that you feel compelled to put the best face on everything."
Dr Sarewitz also calls for change to eliminate bias. "Science's internal controls on bias [are] failing, and bias and error [are] trending in the same direction -- towards the pervasive over-selection and over-reporting of false positive results." Significantly for bioethics, he says that "the cracks in the edifice are showing up first in the biomedical realm, because research results are constantly put to the practical test of improving human health".
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10059
