Elisabeth Bik
www.ScienceIntegrityDigest.com
www.MicrobiomeDigest.com
Twitter: @MicrobiomDigest
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The Dark Side of Science:
Misconduct in Biomedical Research
Financial disclosures:
● I receive consulting and speaker fees
● I receive donations through Patreon.com
● I am listed on 4 uBiome patents
● uBiome founders charged with insurance fraud

Publications are the foundation of science
• Science is about finding the truth
• Science builds upon science: Publications as building blocks
• Scientists build upon each other's work
• Built on trust, but science is not immune to fraud
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www.piqsels.com Ivan Radic, www.Flickr.com

What is Science Misconduct?
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Source: https://www.a-stw.com/
Plagiarism
Copying texts or
ideas without
giving credit
Fabrication
Making up results
No measurements
Falsification
Changing
measurements to
fit hypothesis
Leaving out outliers
Questionable Research
Practices (QRP)
Not publishing negative results
Not citing relevant papers
Statistical flaws
Incomplete reporting
Science Misconduct

Behind each misconduct case is a sad story
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• Why do scientists commit fraud?
• Which author is responsible?
• All authors will be damaged
• Paper concerns vs. who did it

It all started with a plagiarism check
• iThenticate, TurnItIn, WriteCheck
• Google / Scholar: 5-10 words between quotes
• Personal project (2013):
• 80 review/research papers found, reported to journals
• 35 retracted, 11 corrected, 34 not addressed
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Figures found in scientific papers
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Line graphs Photos

The temptation of image manipulation
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Source: Redbook Magazine,
Anna Holmes, Jezebel / Washington Post
Source: @Kanahooo on Weibo
Koreaboo.com

The temptation of image manipulation
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Rossner and Yamada, J Cell Biology (2004), DOI: 10.1083/jcb.200406019

Inappropriate image duplication
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I: Simple II: Repositioned III: Alteration
Honest error Deliberately
● Rossner and Yamada, J Cell Biology (2004), DOI: 10.1083/jcb.200406019
● Bik et al., mBio (2016), DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00809-16
● STM Publishers (2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-taHMZgh-9Q
?

Type I: Simple Duplication
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Estradiol inhibits vascular endothelial cells pro-inflammatory activation
Montreal Heart Institute, Canada
Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry (2013) , DOI: 10.1007/s11010-012-1482-9
Reported to journal: October 2015. No action yet.

Type I: Simple Duplication
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Estradiol inhibits vascular endothelial cells pro-inflammatory activation
Montreal Heart Institute, Canada
Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry (2013) , DOI: 10.1007/s11010-012-1482-9
Reported to journal: October 2015. No action yet.

Type II: Duplication with repositioning
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First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, China
PLOS ONE (2014), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091566
Reported Oct 2015, retracted March 2019, cited by 27

Type II: Duplication with repositioning
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First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, China
PLOS ONE (2014), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091566
Reported Oct 2015, retracted March 2019, cited by 27

Type III: Duplication with alteration
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DOI: 10.1016/j.jsps.2015.02.021, reported online August 2019, cited 31 times

Type III: Duplication with alteration
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DOI: 10.1016/j.jsps.2015.02.021, reported online August 2019, cited 31 times

Type III: Duplication with alteration
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Université de la Mediterranée, Marseille, France
Journal of Infectious Diseases (2003), DOI: 10.1086/379080, cited by 116 papers
Reported online March 2021, not addressed yet.

Type III: Duplication with alteration
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Université de la Mediterranée, Marseille, France
Journal of Infectious Diseases (2003), DOI: 10.1086/379080, cited by 116 papers
Reported online March 2021, not addressed yet.

Type III: Duplication with alteration
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Hubrecht Laboratory (NIOB-KNAW), The Netherlands
Science (2007), DOI: 10.1126/science.1136699, cited 342 times
Reported to journal April 2015, retracted November 2020

Type III: Duplication with alteration
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Hubrecht Laboratory (NIOB-KNAW), The Netherlands
Science (2007), DOI: 10.1126/science.1136699, cited 342 times
Reported to journal April 2015, retracted November 2020

Type III: Duplication with Alteration
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PBS Ps-
AFP1
2h
6h
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India
Biochimie (2013), DOI: 10.1016/j.biochi.2013.06.027, cited by 25
Reported online, March 2016. Corrected July 2016.

Type III: Duplication with alteration
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Enhanced photocatalytic degradation of 4-chlorophenol by Zr4+ doped nano TiO2
Anna University, India, cited 179 times.
Journal of Molecular Catalysis A (2007), DOI: 10.1016/j.molcata.2006.10.051
Reported to journal editors in September 2019; Retracted July 2022

Type III Duplication: NMR spectrum
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Scientific Reports (2020), DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-68709-5
Reported August 2020, retracted March 2021

Inappropriate image duplication
• I scanned 20,621 papers from 1995-2014 - by eye
• 40 journals from 14 publishers
• Found ~ 800 papers with duplicated figures (4%)
• 3 types: Simple - Repositioned - Altered
• Not all are misconduct! About half intentional: 2%
• Alteration in other data types much harder to detect
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Journals are very slow to respond
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2014/2015: 782 papers reported to journals
65% of papers have not been corrected/retracted five years after reporting
March 2023: 6,907 papers found; 2,800 reported to journals/institutions

Reporting concerns about research misconduct
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The Official Professional Way:
● Contact Editor-in-Chief of journal
● Contact Research Integrity Officer of university
● Investigation might follow - or not
The Experienced, Frustrated, and Proactive Way
● Posting on PubPeer.com (6,419 of 6,907)
PubPeer.com

Image Duplication Detection Software
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Richard Van Noorden, Nature (2021)

Artificial intelligence can create fake images
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Artificial intelligence can create fake papers
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Futurism
Tiffany Hsu and Stuart A. Thompson, February 2023

Paper Mills sell authorships or fake papers
• Scientific paper mills
• Sell authorships on already accepted papers
• Sell fake papers written by ghostwriters with fabricated data
• Credit: Anna Abalkina, Jana Christopher, Jennifer Byrne, Smut Clyde, Morty,
Tiger, Cheshire
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http://buy-sell-article.com/coauthorship.php
A Russia-based paper mill
Anna Abalkina, PhD
arXiv.org:2112.13322
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Tadpole Paper Mill: same blot background
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● ~600 papers found so far
● Same blot background across all papers
● Bands generated through Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN)?
DOI: 10.1002/ptr.6336

Science Misconduct - Discussion
• Science is about discovering the truth
• Role of AI in detecting or generating science fraud?
• Focus less on publications / productivity
• More reproducibility studies
• If you see something, say something RI Officer, Journal EiC, PubPeer.com
• It takes a village: role of reviewers, journals, institutions
• Tremendous cost of science misconduct (scientists, science)
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