A new system is needed to tackle research misconduct

Modern evidence based medicine was built on trust: trust in researchers not to deliberately fabricate scientific research, as well as trust in peer reviewed journals to be gatekeepers of high quality research. Bouter rightly points out that trust in both has been lost.1 Not only is there increasing evidence of deliberate fabrication by researchers as the pressure to succeed grows, but predatory journals are now commonplace, making many research manuscripts no more valuable than a self-published blog. Urgent action is needed to restore confidence in scientific medical research, for the sake of both researchers (the majority of whom are honest) and the quality of healthcare worldwide that is currently poisoned by fabricated studies.Two things need to happen.Firstly, a new system of gatekeeping for journals is needed to replace the current assumption of quality implied by being a “peer reviewed journal.” This could be a system of accreditation set up by…
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