TY - JOUR
T1 - Just Post It
T2 - The Lesson From Two Cases of Fabricated Data Detected by Statistics Alone
AU - Simonsohn, U.
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - I argue that requiring authors to post the raw data supporting their published results has the benefit, among many others, of making fraud much less likely to go undetected. I illustrate this point by describing two cases of suspected fraud I identified exclusively through statistical analysis of reported means and standard deviations. Analyses of the raw data behind these published results provided invaluable confirmation of the initial suspicions, ruling out benign explanations (e.g., reporting errors, unusual distributions), identifying additional signs of fabrication, and also ruling out one of the suspected fraud's explanations for his anomalous results. If journals, granting agencies, universities, or other entities overseeing research promoted or required data posting, it seems inevitable that fraud would be reduced.
AB - I argue that requiring authors to post the raw data supporting their published results has the benefit, among many others, of making fraud much less likely to go undetected. I illustrate this point by describing two cases of suspected fraud I identified exclusively through statistical analysis of reported means and standard deviations. Analyses of the raw data behind these published results provided invaluable confirmation of the initial suspicions, ruling out benign explanations (e.g., reporting errors, unusual distributions), identifying additional signs of fabrication, and also ruling out one of the suspected fraud's explanations for his anomalous results. If journals, granting agencies, universities, or other entities overseeing research promoted or required data posting, it seems inevitable that fraud would be reduced.
KW - data posting
KW - data sharing
KW - decision making
KW - fake data
KW - judgment
KW - scientific communication
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84885334592&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0956797613480366
DO - 10.1177/0956797613480366
M3 - Article
C2 - 23982243
AN - SCOPUS:84885334592
SN - 0956-7976
VL - 24
SP - 1875
EP - 1888
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
IS - 10
ER -