A lot of teacher-authors read my writers blog. In this monthly column, I share a popular post from the past month:
There are many unethical practices (much to my dismay), but one caught my attention recently. Wiley, a 217-year-old scientific publisher–arguably the gold standard for scientific researchers and one I’ve submitted to–retracted more than 11,300 compromised articles and closed 19 scientific journal because of fraudulent data and materials. They did this because leaving such false research out in the world as legitimate under cover of the well-respected Wiley name threatened not only their legitimacy but the nearly $30 billion academic publishing industry.
Delving into Wiley’s problem unearthed many causes. One all agreed was a critical culprit was fake scientific papers from so-called “Paper Mills”, companies scientists use to appear reputable. Why is this so important? Money for one, but also a University requirement that their professors “publish or perish”.
When neuropsychologist Bernhard Sabel put his new fake-paper detector to work, he was “shocked” by what it found. After screening some 5000 papers, he estimates up to 34% of neuroscience papers published in 2020 were likely made up or plagiarized; in medicine, the figure was 24%. Science.org 2023
I’m not sure when it happened, but today, the questionable ethics of scientific publications has become “too big to ignore”. In fact, there’s an entire website devoted to tracking this. Check out Retraction Watch if you’re interested or just feeling too positive some day.
In this increasingly politicized world where everything comes down to “he said/she said”, I used to rely on science as my true north. I guess that changed.
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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
