Post by Zadkiel on Jun 7, 2016 11:43:33 GMT
While it is true that a lot of plagiarism and misconduct retractions take place at lesser-known journals, the truth is that there is often significant harm caused by misconduct in academic literature.
For example, in a recent post by Retraction Watch, it was shown that a series of retracted studies made a potentially dangerous drug treatment appear to be safe, possibly endangering patients' lives. This analysis correlated with a 2011 study showing that some patients had their post-surgery pain undertreated.
With plagiarism, the dangers are less about patient safety and more about wasted resources. With limited funding, publication space and research space available, plagiarised proposals and studies cause unneeded duplication that wastes those resources and deny them to new, potentially beneficial research.
For example, in a recent post by Retraction Watch, it was shown that a series of retracted studies made a potentially dangerous drug treatment appear to be safe, possibly endangering patients' lives. This analysis correlated with a 2011 study showing that some patients had their post-surgery pain undertreated.
With plagiarism, the dangers are less about patient safety and more about wasted resources. With limited funding, publication space and research space available, plagiarised proposals and studies cause unneeded duplication that wastes those resources and deny them to new, potentially beneficial research.
