PLAY PODCASTS
Should research fraud be a criminal offence?

Should research fraud be a criminal offence?

Medicine and Science from The BMJ

July 15, 201413m 46s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (mcdn.podbean.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

Research fraud, the deliberate falsification of research data, undermines science and can lead to horrible outcomes, as exemplified by Andrew Wakefield and the MMR/Autism scandal.

A new Head to Head in The BMJ sets out the case for and against making research fraud a crime.

Arguing yes is Prof. Zulfiqar Bhutta, from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, who says that criminal sanctions are necessary to deter growing deliberate research misconduct, which can ultimately harm patients.

Prof. Julian Crane, from the University of Otago Wellington, disagrees: he doubts that sanctions will have any deterrent effect and worries that criminalisation would undermine trust.

Read the full debate:

http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g4532