What would your choice be

Misconduct by Postdocs Leads to Retraction of Paper

More retractions from Nobelist

Postdoc fudged epigenetic data

I have been rather occupied lately with work in lab. Still I managed to pay attention to development or news in Science (thanks to RSS reader and CK for introducing). Just this morning, I was reading and the above caught my attention.

We know that people who do research comes with different motives and intentions.  Some may have noble reasons while others self-centered. We are facing an era of fast pace and uncertainty. In order to keep up with this change, the scientists nowadays have to work even harder than their earlier predecessors. We talk about mass data sets in shorter time, to publish or else perish, to compete for limited funding and resources, to make a name first...... I sometimes wonder, is this what research is all about? Yet, when the environment is pressing hard on us, do you go with the tide or swim against it? We are well aware that no publication or findings for 2-3 years may mean no funding in many years to come. If there's no funding, how do scientist carry out research? No good publication may also mean scarce opportunity in getting a faculty position or securing tenure. The pressure will definitely transmitted from upper level to lower level for results and data. Not to mention the tight competitions between groups doing similar work, the 'who gets it there first' pressure. Thus we see more and more research misconducts happening, which in my opinion is a sad thing because it means the integrity and good value in scientists are thinning.

I do not think it's easy to falsify data without people knowing or discovering it at a later time. Even if nobody finds out about it, an individual misconduct may lead to jeopardizing effect such as delaying the advancement of certain field for years. But to be frank, it is also not easy to work days and nights for years in lab and you are known as Mr Nobody. Well I guess it all comes back to individual in the end- what is it that you value most in life?