Summa cum fraude – Scientific Misconduct and the Attempt of a Counterattack

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The project "Summa cum fraude – Scientific Misconduct and the Attempt of a Counterattack" is intended to provide an active tool for self-regulation in science in order to engage the strongly expanding phenomenon of scientific misconduct. Basically, the project entails a targeted search of publications in scientific journals (here: physics, chemistry and material science) in order to find studies with fabricated or false data. After reporting these cases to the editors of the concerned journals the whole process of investigation is documented. Primarily, the project therefore aims to eliminate such publications that are in strong conflict with the standards of good scientific practice in order to avoid that fake science contributes to the current knowledge. Based on these investigations, new and especially uniform and standardized concepts to cope with scientific misconduct are discussed with representatives from several publishers and libraries, and ombudspeople (e.g. at a concluding workshop). The knowledge of the fundamental mechanisms of scientific misconduct and the analysis of typical systematics (i.e. topic of the journal, open access journal, publisher, impact factor, type of misconduct, repeated misconduct, statement by the authors, duration of the investigation by the journal, final decision by the editor) may provide possible solutions to prevent scientific misconduct or to reduce its current extent.