Integrity of the Research Process - Fabrication
(Note: I will be posting only once per week while doing the series on integrity.)
Fabrication involves violation of honesty, the basic feature of the integrity of the research process.
In this process the researcher deceives by making up results or altering actual results and reporting them in an effort to deceive everyone. In many ways it is difficult to separate fabrication and falsification. For example, ignoring contrary evidence can cause either.
As reported in Honor in Science, published by Sigma Xi, centuries ago Charles Babbage (1792-1871) described trimming, cooking, and forging:
“Trimming: the smoothing of irregularities to make the data look extremely accurate and precise.
Cooking: retaining only those results that fit the theory and discarding others.
Forging: inventing some or all of the research data that are reported, and even reporting experiments to obtain those data that were never performed.”
Other acts of fabrication mentioned in the literature:
allowing self-deception, biases, political influence
false results in favor of expectations
gullibility
deliberate manipulation
propaganda for one’s theories
naming false co-authors
selective reporting of data
fabrication of bibliographic material
falsely reporting stage of research
failure to report what would make theory invalid
measurements never made
miscalibration of instruments
accepting work of unqualified assistant
elevating results or forecasts
false interpretations
