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Editorials

Research misconduct: Britain's failure to act

BMJ 2000; 321 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.321.7275.1485 (Published 16 December 2000) Cite this as: BMJ 2000;321:1485

Act or risk losing public confidence in research

  1. Michael Farthing, editor, Gut, and chairman, Committee on Publication Ethics,
  2. Richard Horton, editor, Lancet,
  3. Richard Smith, editor
  1. BMJ

    News p 1487

    More than a year ago the good and the great of British medicine assembled in Edinburgh and agreed that the time had come to act decisively on research misconduct.1-3 Unfortunately, nothing visible has happened. Yet the so far largely submerged problem of research misconduct is surfacing like a decomposing corpse.4 If the leaders in medicine do not act they risk losing public confidence in medical research.

    Fraud in research has a long and dishonourable history, but the problem came firmly onto the agenda in Britain in the early 1980s.5 One consequence was a report from the Royal College of Physicians of London …

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