Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

F. García Olmedo: "Thanks to the loyalty of scientists fraud is detected soon"

The impact of science and technology on society can be analyzed from different perspectives. The usual thing is to analyze how new inventions affect everyday life, but there are other aspects of scientific research that you want to keep secret. One of them is intentional or unconscious scientific fraud. He talks about the causes and consequences of this fraud in the conferences organized by the Chair Miguel Sánchez-Mazas, F, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. García Olmedo.

Mendiburu, Joana

Felix Goñi (right), organizer of the conference and F. García Olmedo.

When we talk about scientific fraud, what do we talk about?

This concept can be very broad, and some relate it to all the confusion that can occur around science. But I think ethical problems should not be confused with fraud. I limit myself to the official definition of fraud. Scientific fraud consists in not respecting standards in scientific research and in disseminating results. This has nothing to do, for example, with the fact that the scientist himself has or does not have responsibilities in the negative consequences that the use of discovery may cause.
Moreover, I want to emphasize that scientists are not better or worse than others and that we are not ethically above the rest of the groups in society. To this extent it is no wonder that fraud also has its place in science.

Are the results of known research reliable?

The results of scientific research are reliable, as they pass enormous controls for publication. Occasionally the result can lead to erroneous investigations, but they do not last long without denying. Large-scale research attracts many people, and other research that requires repeated verification is derived from these results. Thanks to loyalty between scientists and laboratories fraud is soon detected. The interest of science to move forward means rejecting erroneous results.

What is the work of scientific journals in controlling research?

Scientific journals play an important role. The more mentions they collect the articles, the better the magazine that has published them and that is why they control them. All scientists, to increase their fame, want to publish the results of their work in the best journals, but it is not easy, since they not only check if the results are correct but take into account the importance of research. Thus, for example, the journal Nature publishes one in ten correctly evaluated works.

It is very important the work that magazines do, because if not, we would have to spend all day reading, and in addition, children would have to distinguish between truth and lie. To some extent this is what happens on the Internet, there is a lot of information but not proven.

Who values research?

The magazine selects two experts to evaluate the work. The author does not know who values his work, but is usually valued by the researchers who accompany him. Therefore, in this trial, those who value act as prosecutors, authors as lawyers and journals as judges.

Is current legislation adequate to prosecute scientific fraud?

If scientific fraud harms a third party it is judged with the civil code. The problem is that people who participate in the trial do not understand the process being judged. It is very difficult to pass what is in scientific language to the civil code. But scientific fraud is becoming more and more echoed and therefore institutions are increasingly giving importance to the problem.