Pandemic Lesson for Scientists, Students: Be Honest

Pandemic Lesson for Scientists, Students: Be Honest

Research fraud, exam cheating are two worrying outcomes of science & education in Covid times

SK Sarin

04.09.2021

The Covid pandemic generated unprecedented scientific urgency to search for new treatments and vaccines, resulting in over 100,000 scientific publications in 2020, purportedly for rapid dissemination of knowledge and for abating human suffering.

In the race to be faster, scientific journals diluted their multilayer peer review criteria and slashed average turnaround time from 60 days, to sometimes less than a week. Inevitably, scientific misconduct and fraud happened.

HCQ, mask, ivermectin papers

Many such papers were retracted after publication. The most painful flameout was the Surgisphere scandal: Twin articles published in two of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine, related to hydroxychloroquine and its cardiovascular side-effects.

In another instance, Annals of Internal Medicine backtracked on a highly-cited paper it published in April 2020, that asserted face masks were ineffective in preventing the spread of Covid. The article had included just four study subjects, but the misinformation led to careless exposure and infection in millions. Such publications demean the very foundations of science.

A flawed ivermectin preprint paper showed that this anti-parasite drug reduced Covid death rates by more than 90%. However, this July 14, the paper was withdrawn from the preprint server, ‘Research Square’, due to scientific dishonesty.

Revenues of pharma companies making ivermectin had swelled over months, and unsuspecting patients had paid for scientific misinformation.

Even Nobel-winners cheat

Frauds and misconduct have been common in the history of science. ‘Nobel prize winners’ are no exception. Frances Arnold of Caltech announced a retraction from Science last December and nearly half a dozen ‘Nobels’ had in the past accepted misconducts.

Scientific integrity is perhaps declining. But ethics are more essential than ever now. In pandemic times, we rapidly need new information, which should be unbiased and trustworthy. Moreover, there should be honest and prompt public admission of errors by the scientific community.

Covid is going to be with us. So science must regain its ethical centre. The pressure of incomplete enrolment of patients in clinical trials, lack of adequate consumables and kits for carrying out basic science experiments, research workers being away for months due to lockdown and above all, no money with funding agencies to support ongoing scientific projects, are reasons given for altering ‘facts and findings’.

Sponsors and funding agencies should help. Research funding and human resources need to be increased several fold without political meddling.US scientists recently requested President Joe Biden not to politicise research.

Dishonest students

There’s ‘academic dishonesty’, too. Unethical behaviour to gain an unfair academic advantage during online learning and assessments are common now – nearly 50% students in different parts of the world accept indulging in such dishonesty, with excuses such as: It’s not such a big deal, it’s not really cheating, it’s my teacher’s fault or everyone cheats.

Even good students get tempted due to the unstructured assessment system in a pandemic. Besides producing semi-educated and inappropriatelyskilled students, such conduct will have long-term ramifications. A generation of ‘ethically compromised’ children will soon populate India.

Solutions have to come from parents and society. The Academic Integrity Office of the University of UC San Diego found 1,042 students guilty of integrity violations last year. We need such offices of academic integrity in our colleges too. Maybe an independent National Agency for Scientific and Academic Integrity as well.

The meaning of ‘education’ and ‘learning’ rather than ‘passing out’ needs to be drilled in our systems. We need to initiate dialogues on values and build ethics in teachings and curricula in school and college education.

We do not want our physicians and scientists to be corrupt. Tomorrow is Teachers’ Day. An appropriate occasion to remind ourselves of why education and research must be ethical.

The writer is Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences