Research Fraud

Research fraud:

The other day one of my grad students asked e a question-“how do you know the data the put up in research study (journal article) is true”. Even though the answer for the question can be simple from- I don’t know, to  complex “well the researchers will have academic integrity” and so on.   That got me thinking- can i answer the question of do i believe the data- in the Indian context. So, I just thought -well let’s just think about it. 

I went and looked into some research studies published in some journals from India (especially PT journals). I have some knowledge on how Phd is done in our country. I have been also privy to some raw data also collected by people who are doing Phd or finished it.  From these i can honestly say many of these data look very iffy and some downright fradulent.

Why- well many of them send their PG dissertation and it takes few days to publish in some of the Indian journal especially in PT or rehabilitation.  Again, you may ask what is wrong with it. Well most of PG dissertation is just cooked up data sitting in the loo or while watching cricket match. 

We all knew for long time PG data many a time was cooked up. We all just sat there and watched as PTs started cooking data and plagiarising the content. We all thought well this is victim less crime- no one is hurt and the guy wants to finish the course.

However, this all changed with many of us got into the rat race of publishing. People started sending their dissertation, data which they dreamed up to some journal which wanted content desperately.  PTs doing PhD – well most of them just write some numbers and they also publish it.

 The mafia of cooked data (the drug peddler if you think them as cooking meth) and the journal (the police who have to control the peddlers) became strong. Along come databases like CINAHL, PEDro etc which started to index these journals with it came, the victim in the crime.

As more and more people started to look into all the published data either as part of EBM practice or doing a systematic review, these data (cooked or uncooked) became vital.  What happens if i want to look into say- Burnstromm  or electrotherapy for pain- most of the data which is published in these journals give a positive result (sometimes huge) unlike the other published data.  Akin to saying crows in my town are white unlike other crows which are black.  This skews the answer or for people who do SR.  Which by the, way ruins the whole idea of science of medicine and EBM. We may also be coming to the wrong conclusion, a useless treatment like Brunstrom for stroke as useful.

PTs in India must develop – research and academic integrity and stop the crime we may perpetrate in making medicine unscientific.   The editors of the journals should be more vigilant, tougher peer review moreover; the PTs who know he/she was fraudulent in his/ her data collection should never publish it.

Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true! --Homer Simpson

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