The medical research community has uncovered a worrying trend: why are large numbers of medical researchers apparently misrepresenting their findings? Sophie Scott investigates.
Three major Australian universities are currently investigating serious allegations of alleged research misconduct.
The claims range from possibly manipulated images, falsified data to - unbelievably - allegations that a study with published results never actually took place.
The University of New South Wales is already embroiled in a long-running inquiry into research overseen by professor Levon Khachigian, the scientist behind a cancer compound called DZ13. Now they're investigating whether images in a scientific paper he co-authored last year on cardiovascular disease were duplicated.
The core of the complaint is whether images in the scientific paper were manipulated. One image appears to have been rotated to show a different result.
In another case this year, it appears that a patient-based study wasn't even conducted, despite positive 'results' being published.
A further case concerns a wound healing cream developed at the Queensland Institute of Technology.
Luke Cormack was a PhD student who alerted a scientific journal about what he believes are inconsistencies in research on growing human embryonic stem cells in the laboratory. While an internal investigation cleared researchers involved of misconduct, there are now claims that research grants may have been paid upon the basis of false information.
Click Here To View Full Article
Makes you question certain scientific studies endorsed by governments and health organisations, doesn't it?
