Scientific misdemeanor—are we regulated enough?

Excerpt

Scientific misdemeanor is a universal malady and has probably brought more despair to humanity than war, terrorism, or any form of religion. A glaring and gory example is substituting fat in place of simple sugars in causation of atherosclerosis in 1960s, courtesy the multinational soda giants. We see the same replicated in matters of cooking oil, alcohol—most specifically red wine, use of eggs, and milk products. The list is endless with each product being promoted by respective stakeholders quoting selective research conducted with dubious methodology, in a doubtful milieu, and with malafide intent. This is a veritable plague rampant globally, but only the tip of the iceberg is reported. The only redeeming feature is that the tip is getting larger and larger as more and more such cases are being reported. We in India are not immune to it. In fact, I stick my neck out to say that we may be one of the bigger culprits, and the glaring example is atherosclerosis research coming out from Moradabad a few years back, which created more than its fair share of ripples initially, but was subsequently retracted by British Medical Journal and others. The magnitude of the problem is well recognized and accepted, and we all, including yours truly, have been shedding crocodile tears, but it is only now that attention is being focused on taking some concrete action. “Stroke” was the first journal to implement stringent guidelines to ensure publication ethics, transparency, reproducibility, and validity of research. Towing the line, “Circulation Research” too has announced “New initiatives aimed at enhancing the rigor, transparency, and reproducibility—and, thus, the overall robustness—of articles published …” [1]. They have taken the check list route of having some basic questions checked at the initial submission. If the paper is accepted, a more detailed second list, check listing certain parameters for rigor and transparency will be required. This will be published online with every article for the readers to refer to, for checking the robustness of the research and validity of conclusions drawn. Methodological weaknesses come under a special scrutiny under these new measures. The protocols used for randomization and blinding, both at allocation and evaluation stage, priori calculation of sample size, and the power of the study and the statistical methods used for data reporting have all been addressed and will most certainly lead to more rigor and replicability of the results. …