Tl;dr: imagine the success and continuity of not only your career but the careers of your employees had a significant element of random chance involved. Welcome to research.
Now former scientist here. I see the typical “people would do this anyways” comments but I’d wager they don’t understand what it’s like to work in science and academia. It’s publish or perish. In the United States, it’s an absolute capitalist meat grinder and it can be brutal.
As a lead researcher, you are dependent on securing grant money not only to keep your job, but to keep the jobs of your co-workers and the very lab itself afloat.
How do you secure grants? By showing you have the experience and ability to complete the research.
How do you show you have the required experience and ability? By your lab’s record of publishing the results of successful research.
What is successful research? In an ideal world, it would be what was found at the end of an investigation, regardless of if it disproves the null hypothesis or not. In reality, it’s the results of research that have further application, either in industry or that disprove the null hypothesis and act as a step to get you further related grants.
What happens when an investigation flounders? So you didn’t disprove the null hypothesis. In an ideal world, you publish a paper explaining what happened and everyone knows what not to do in the future. In reality, it’s basically unpublishable as journals want what will make them money. Your lab now has the research equivalent of a gap in your resume. You continue with other research and hope it is publishable. If your lab has a streak of bad luck and multiple projects crap out, now it’s harder to secure grants. The downward spiral begins.
Is what this researcher did wrong? Absolutely, but I get it. I 100% get it.
We need serious reform that removes the profit motive. A functional research system would better catch fabricated results before they’re published. It would alleviate the pressures that drive good people to do bad things in the pursuit of doing further good. It would actually enhance scientific discovery as ALL results would be published and without parasitic publishers as unnecessary middlemen.
From the outside it’s not obvious how many variables influence scientific research that have absolutely nothing to do with science or the pursuit of knowledge and truth.
Being scientifically literate is insufficient. We must also be highly sceptical and apply critical thinking to the work of other scientists, particularly when large sums of money are involved and the inevitable conflicts of interest that entails.
People with money are able to fund research but they will never be scientists because they are only interested in what is true to the extent it will make money.
Tl;dr: imagine the success and continuity of not only your career but the careers of your employees had a significant element of random chance involved. Welcome to research.
Now former scientist here. I see the typical “people would do this anyways” comments but I’d wager they don’t understand what it’s like to work in science and academia. It’s publish or perish. In the United States, it’s an absolute capitalist meat grinder and it can be brutal.
As a lead researcher, you are dependent on securing grant money not only to keep your job, but to keep the jobs of your co-workers and the very lab itself afloat.
How do you secure grants? By showing you have the experience and ability to complete the research.
How do you show you have the required experience and ability? By your lab’s record of publishing the results of successful research.
What is successful research? In an ideal world, it would be what was found at the end of an investigation, regardless of if it disproves the null hypothesis or not. In reality, it’s the results of research that have further application, either in industry or that disprove the null hypothesis and act as a step to get you further related grants.
What happens when an investigation flounders? So you didn’t disprove the null hypothesis. In an ideal world, you publish a paper explaining what happened and everyone knows what not to do in the future. In reality, it’s basically unpublishable as journals want what will make them money. Your lab now has the research equivalent of a gap in your resume. You continue with other research and hope it is publishable. If your lab has a streak of bad luck and multiple projects crap out, now it’s harder to secure grants. The downward spiral begins.
Is what this researcher did wrong? Absolutely, but I get it. I 100% get it.
We need serious reform that removes the profit motive. A functional research system would better catch fabricated results before they’re published. It would alleviate the pressures that drive good people to do bad things in the pursuit of doing further good. It would actually enhance scientific discovery as ALL results would be published and without parasitic publishers as unnecessary middlemen.
I don’t fully understand the field of course, but I appreciate this comment FWIW.
From the outside it’s not obvious how many variables influence scientific research that have absolutely nothing to do with science or the pursuit of knowledge and truth.
Being scientifically literate is insufficient. We must also be highly sceptical and apply critical thinking to the work of other scientists, particularly when large sums of money are involved and the inevitable conflicts of interest that entails.
People with money are able to fund research but they will never be scientists because they are only interested in what is true to the extent it will make money.