Journal gets advice on preventing research fraud

Confronted by the embarrassing scandal surrounding the fraudulent Korean stem cell study a year ago, Science magazine has been advised to adopt new methods to scrutinize research findings. "No realistic set of procedures can be completely immune to deliberate fraud," said an independent committee studying the issue. But the committee went on to recommend that Science, as well as other journals, institute a risk assessment policy for studies that raise their concerns. Editors at Science noted that an international team of researchers involved in the work had complicated their review of Hwang Woo-Suk's cloning project, noting that some of the material had to be translated twice. And they added that even with added scrutiny, there can be no guarantees against fraud.

- here's the report on the committee's work from Newsday

Related Articles:
Magazine retracts discredited paper on embryonic stem cells. Report
Korean scientist faked all evidence of stem cell cloning. Report
Korea blueprints $14.3B biotech investment plan. Report