Leading by example

摘要

Everybody likes a good scandal, and there is nothing like a fresh allegation of research misconduct to set tongues wagging in the scientific community and outside it. There is broad agreement within the community on two main points regarding outright scientific fraud: it is rare, and it is serious. This unanimity frays at the marginal territory lying just beyond falsification and fabrication of data, however, where 'misconduct' may involve hogging the limelight for one paper too many, or tardy record-keeping at the laboratory bench. But even here, there is a reasonable consensus that scientists in every nation and every discipline will do the best for both themselves and their work by keeping all forms of substandard conduct to a minimum.