Fraud and misconduct in clinical research: A concern

Abstract

Fraud and misconduct in clinical research is widespread. Good clinical practice is a guideline adopted internationally as standard operating procedure for conduct of clinical research. Despite these guidelines being available, unavailability of internationally harmonized framework for managing research fraud and misconduct makes clinical research a highly vulnerable area to commit fraud. Fraud could be of various types and due to various reasons. Whatever the circumstances be, any fraud should be dealt with strictly and regulations should be in place to prevent its occurrence.

Traditional Herbal Medicine, Pharmacognosy, and Pharmacopoeial Standards

“…[62]), and report that negative findings are often not publicized, allowing for a drug to be released on the market with the belief that it has been scientifically demonstrated to be safe and effective. This is not entirely true.…”

Exploratory Analysis of Retracted Cardiovascular Diseases Publications

“…In the scal year 2019, more than two billion dollars were spent funding CVD-related research projects. The unfortunate and signi cant development of erroneous research and information may result in spurious and inappropriate clinical decision-making that may impact patient care negatively (4). Peer-reviewed scienti c medical journals nd themselves obligated to withdraw or retract any erroneous research.…”

Changing paradigm in the scientific publication process: Are we encouraging Science or Pseudoscience? Urgent need for introspection and self regulation

“…However, the last decade has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the quantum of scientific publication with a proportionate increase in the incidence of scientific/publication misconduct. 1,2 The scientific community has been voicing its concern from time to time about the growing menace of unscientific and unethical behavior which has literally plagued the scientific publication arena from an editor's perspective. Today, the real scientific world is at risk of getting overshadowed and inundated under the cloud of 'pseudo science'.…”

“…While the well known forms of publication misconduct continue unabated, such as authorship issues, conflicts of interest, plagiarism in its various forms, research fraud, salami slicing, it is of concern that the entire scholarly publication process should not get hijacked. [2][3][4][5] Today, knowingly or unknowingly, a significant proportion of stakeholders in the field of scientific publications ranging from the authors, reviewers, editors and even the publishers often indulge in blatant violation of publication ethics in its various forms. Individual author misconduct has been known since a while now.…”

“…However, increasing instances of reviewer, editorial and publisher fraud is a cause for distress for all those who wish to thrive in a genuine scientific milieu. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8] One could have never imagined rigging of the peer review process! Now we have instances of journal editors being more interested in revenue generation and manipulating the entire citation process by selective publishing of articles, encouraging coercive citations and 'citation cartels' so as to artificially improve the Journal Impact Factor which would in turn attract more paying clientele authors in an Open Access (OA) format.…”