573. Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped?

573.学术欺诈可以制止吗?

Freakonomics Radio

社会与文化

2024-01-18

1 小时 2 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Probably not — the incentives are too strong. Scholarly publishing is a $28 billion global industry, with misconduct at every level. But a few reformers are gaining ground. (Part 2 of 2)

单集文稿 ...

  • Last week's episode was called why is there so much fraud in academia?

  • We heard about the alleged fraudsters.

  • We heard about the whistleblowers and then a lawsuit against the whistleblowers.

  • My very first thoughts were like, oh my God, how's anyone gonna be able to do this again?

  • We heard about feelings of betrayal from a co author who was also a longtime friend of the accused.

  • We once even got to the point of our two families making an offer to a developer on a project to have houses connected to each other.

  • We also heard an admission from inside the house that the house is on fire.

  • If you were just a rational agent acting in the most self interested way possible as a researcher in academia, I think you would cheat.

  • That episode was a little gossipy for us, at least.

  • Today we are back to wonky.

  • But don't worry, it is still really interesting.

  • Today we look into the academic research industry, and believe me, it is an industry.

  • And there is misconduct everywhere, from the universities.

  • The most likely career path for anyone who has committed misconduct is a long and fruitful career, because most people, if they're caught at all, they skate.

  • There's misconduct at academic journals, some of which are essentially fake.

  • There may be something that sounds a lot less nefarious than what I just described, but that is actually what's happening.

  • And we'll hear how the rest of us contribute, because, after all, we love these research findings.

  • You know, you wear red.

  • You must be angry.

  • Or if it says that this is definitely a cure for cancer.