Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23341553›Full record

ArticlemBio2013

Males are overrepresented among life science researchers committing scientific misconduct.

Ferric C Fang, Joan W Bennett, Arturo Casadevall

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in mBio, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
35citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
15.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

35 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 96 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Meta-assessment of bias in science.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017
    Pooled it
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Can I trust this paper?Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025
    Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Are female scientists underrepresented in self-retractions for honest error?Frontiers in research metrics and analytics · 2023
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Retraction: The "Other Face" of Research Collaboration?Science and engineering ethics · 2020
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Ferric C FangDepartments of Laboratory Medicine and Microbiology, University of Washington, School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA. fcfang@u.washington.edu
Joan W Bennett
Arturo Casadevall
Albert Einstein College of Medicine · USRutgers, The State University of New Jersey · USUniversity of Washington · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

unlabelledA review of the United States Office of Research Integrity annual reports identified 228 individuals who have committed misconduct, of which 94% involved fraud. Analysis of the data by career stage and gender revealed that misconduct occurred across the entire career spectrum from trainee to senior scientist and that two-thirds of the individuals found to have committed misconduct were male. This exceeds the overall proportion of males among life science trainees and faculty. These observations underscore the need for additional efforts to understand scientific misconduct and to ensure the responsible conduct of research. IMPORTANCE: As many of humanity's greatest problems require scientific solutions, it is critical for the scientific enterprise to function optimally. Misconduct threatens the scientific enterprise by undermining trust in the validity of scientific findings. We have examined specific demographic characteristics of individuals found to have committed research misconduct in the life sciences. Our finding that misconduct occurs across all stages of career development suggests that attention to ethical aspects of the conduct of science should not be limited to those in training. The observation that males are overrepresented among those who commit misconduct implies a gender difference that needs to be better understood in any effort to promote research integrity.

Indexed as

Age DistributionBiological Science DisciplinesFemaleHumansMaleResearch PersonnelScientific MisconductSex DistributionUnited States

Identifiers

PMID23341553
PMCPMC3551552
OpenAlexW2058033610

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-SA
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.