‘A lot of it is sloppiness’: the biologist who finds flaws in scientific papers

Sly Saint · Jan 29, 2024

When Sholto David quit his job last autumn he could have looked for another post, taken time out to travel, or grabbed his tent and hopped on his bike. But David, a biologist living in Pontypridd, Wales, threw his efforts into a somewhat obscure hobby: finding flaws in scientific papers and doing his best to have them rectified.

The work, David says, is largely thankless. Academics often got defensive about their studies or refused to respond to his criticisms. Journal editors took a similar tack, ignoring his letters, rejecting them, or investigating on timescales bordering on the glacial.

But then came an announcement. Last week, one of the most prestigious cancer centres in the US, the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said it was seeking to retract six research papers and correct 31 more after David raised concerns in a blog about dozens of its studies. Many were conducted by top executives at the institute.

Of the rest of the papers David flagged, Dr Barrett Rollins, the integrity research officer at Dana-Farber, said one remained under investigation and three required no further action. Sixteen contained data generated in other laboratories and where possible, the heads of those labs had been contacted. “We will work with them to see that they correct the literature as warranted,” he says.

The move came as a “major surprise”, David told the Guardian. “To the credit of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, I’m obviously glad they are going to do the corrections and retractions. But at the same time, it does leave a sour taste in the mouth. Most of the time this just doesn’t happen. People ignore you, institutions insist it takes years to do investigations, and journals drag their feet at every opportunity.”

According to Rollins, following usual practice to “review any potential data error and make corrections when warranted”, the institute had already taken “prompt and decisive action” in 97% of the cases David flagged where its scientists were primary authors. Rollins himself is an author on some of the papers flagged and had been recused from any relevant investigations.

David, who did a PhD in molecular biology at Newcastle University, has long been fascinated by flaws in science. He started off finding errors in systematic reviews, meta-analyses and clinical trials, which he would flag to the scientists responsible and the journals that published them. When those efforts proved fruitless, he turned to posting on PubPeer, a website where scientists can comment on published papers.
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‘A lot of it is sloppiness’: the biologist who finds flaws in scientific papers (msn.com)

Creekside · Jan 29, 2024

My guess is that sloppiness is more likely to occur when it results in convenient conclusions. If the data looks good, "Hey, it must be correct! No need to double-check."

Jaybee00 · Jan 30, 2024

https://twitter.com/user/status/1752136421672964180

honestly it is frustrating that people choose to get most upset about *this* (bad, but mostly postdocs cutting corners under non-supervision of demanding PIs who just don't care, in ultracompetitive labs..) rather than cases of major fraud that are much more egregious & impactful

Wits_End · Jan 30, 2024

"Journal editors took a similar tack, ignoring his letters, rejecting them, or investigating on timescales bordering on the glacial."

Sounds oddly familiar ...

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‘A lot of it is sloppiness’: the biologist who finds flaws in scientific papers

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‘A lot of it is sloppiness’: the biologist who finds flaws in scientific papers

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