Shutting down the police
Jan 20, 2013
Bishop Hill in Journals

An article at Forbes discusses the recent closing down of the Science Fraud website, a crowdsourced effort to expose scientific misconduct, particularly in the life sciences.

Reading between the lines, the site's owner was a little careless with the reputations of some of those who came under suspicion and the ensuing legal threats did for his site. It looks as though he's going to try again, but utilising a different structure and a different approach.

That sounds like a good idea. Science, being a process that is operated by fallible human beings with perverse incentives, desperately needs policing by outsiders. It looks as though the life sciences will get their neighbourhood cop. Let's hope the physical sciences can develop one too.

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