Fraud in PS

[mb712]

Although it's probably painfully obvious what current scandal inspired this discussion, my intention isn't to gossip or anything of the sort, just see what you all have to say. A lab mate and I were discussing academic fraud and PI oversight and had a few questions.

 

For students or former students: Do/did you expect significant oversight to your research once you advance(d) to candidacy? Do you think it's necessary for PIs or those in charge to show enough oversight to catch things like data faking, dishonest data manipulation, lying about funding (or anything), etc.? Does this rest solely on students themselves?

 

For Ph.D. holders: If you supervise/advise students, are you close enough to the work to know if something was off? Is it something faculty with graduate students should be looking for/is it a responsibility of faculty to look in the first place? Should it be solely up to the students to maintain integrity and honesty?

 

For anybody: Do you think the field has enough checks and balances to usually catch people who do shady things? Is academic fraud relatively rare and not something to worry about?

 

We also had a lengthy conversation about what open science may mean in regards to fraud, but I think I've asked enough questions for now.

[spunky]

i think things like this are starting to become more and more prevalent given the current environment surrounding academic hiring and the process of obtaining funding. 

 

i mean, we in psychology kind of had our own academic scandal back on 2011 with the Diederik Stapel case:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diederik_Stapel

 

which has sort of prompted some soul-searching in psychology that goes under the name of generic name of the "Crisis of Replicability" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis). it has mostly prompted a most amusing witch-hunt of sorts as well as some nasty fights on twitter/facebook but as far as any real, long-lasting change... well, we're still waiting for it.  

 

maybe the groundwork is being laid now for the folks here in Political Science to have their very own "Crisis of Replicability"?

Edited May 29, 2015 by spunky

[mb712]

It's funny you mentioned Stapel, I was just thinking of that whole issue this morning when I saw a social psychologist post a photo online of a replicability book from the 70s or 80s, somewhat implying the field of psychology had their act together decades ago and was entitled to judge the current political science situation. Social psychologists are who academically raised me, they're my people, but seriously...I couldn't help but laugh at that cognitive dissonance.