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This article is from the Scientific Skepticism FAQ, by Paul Johnson Paul@treetop.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by
others.
1.9: How much fraud is there in science?
In its simplest form this question is unanswerable, since undetected
fraud is by definition unmeasurable. Of course there are many known
cases of fraud in science. Some use this to argue that all scientific
findings (especially those they dislike) are worthless.
This ignores the replication of results which is routinely undertaken
by scientists. Any important result will be replicated many times by
many different people. So an assertion that (for instance) scientists
are lying about carbon-14 dating requires that a great many scientists
are engaging in a conspiracy. See the previous question.
In fact the existence of known and documented fraud is a good
illustration of the self-correcting nature of science. It does not
matter if a proportion of scientists are fraudsters because any
important work they do will not be taken seriously without independent
verification. Hence they must confine themselves to pedestrian work
which no-one is much interested in, and obtain only the expected
results. For anyone with the talent and ambition necessary to get a
Ph.D this is not going to be an enjoyable career.
Also, most scientists are idealists. They perceive beauty in
scientific truth and see its discovery as their vocation. Without
this most would have gone into something more lucrative.
These arguments suggest that undetected fraud in science is both rare
and unimportant.
The above arguments are weaker in medical research, where companies
frequently suppress or distort data in order to support their own
products. Tobacco companies regularly produce reports "proving" that
smoking is harmless, and drug companies have both faked and suppressed
data related to the safety or effectiveness or major products.
For more detail on more scientific frauds than you ever knew existed,
see "False Prophets" by Alexander Koln.
The standard textbook used in North America is "Betrayers of the
Truth: Fraud and Deceit in Science" by William Broad and Nicholas Wade
(Oxford 1982).
There is a mailing list SCIFRAUD for the discussion of fraud and
questionable behaviour in science. To subscribe, send
"sub scifraud <Your Name>" to "listserv@uacsc2.albany.edu".
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