Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Scientific fame (or notoriety) without responsibility

The latest issue of Nature Physics has a review by Mike Norman of the book, Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World By Eugenie Samuel Reich. The book chronicles the antics of Hendrik Schon earlier this decade. Norman points out,
"many readers will take exception to how leniently Schon's senior coauthors were dealt with in the book, perhaps because they were willing to be interviewed (those who refused were treated more harshly). In fact, a serious discourse of the responsibilities of senior authors, management, journal editors and referees in the scientific process would have been a welcome addition."

1 comment:

  1. Indeed, "publish or perish" probably also holds in science history...

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