Unpopular Science 240107
Plagiarism and cheating in professional science
The recent scandals in higher education should remind us that professional science is ultimately a job, with bosses, performance reviews, inter-office politics and back-stabbing — and rewards and punishments that don’t necessarily line up with a romantic search for The Truth™. Credentials and citations are no substitute for being right. Maybe it’s okay that trust in universities has plunged among all demographic groups. Only half of post-graduate degree holders have confidence in higher education — down from 2/3rds in 2015.
But we personal scientists just want to know the answers. The fancy institutional review boards, footnotes, APA-formatted citations, blah blah — what difference does it make, as long as I get the correct answer for myself? If I want to share my results, I’ll use social media because I care more about getting interesting and constructive feedback than about racking up more padding for my resume.
That’s why I don’t get terribly worked up over the resignation of a Harvard president. After all, nobody thinks she was hired for the content of her character.
Claudine Gay might be a plagiarist, but the work itself could still be good, right? Let’s take a look….