Raymond Lopez

PHIL 242
Erik Lindland
25 November 2014
Why Honesty in Scientific Research is Important for the Public/Reducing
Research Fraud
Many people have reason to believe that engineers and scientists are
completely truthful in their research and studies. This level of trust and
honesty that the common folk instill on a group of people like scientists and
engineers can be based on the fact that their studies and research is
extremely difficult in and of itself, and that even the common person would
not even think to question the findings, let alone study and perform the
experiments themselves. Scientists and engineers have been studying and
training in their own research fields for so many years that common
everyday people would look at their research as if it were a foreign language
to them. The devoted time and experience, as well as all of the impressive
credentials (e.g. graduated from Caltech and received his/her Ph.D. in
theoretical physics) are grounds for leading the common people to believe
that these scientists and engineers know what they are doing and have no
reason to even fabricate data because of their level of knowledge,
competence, and expertise.
One of the biggest reasons why honesty in scientific research is
absolutely important is because everyone (or at least a majority of people)

rely on scientists for the advancement of technology, the further

advancement of society, and overall, as a way to prolong the existence of
the human race. The term scientist is a vastly broad term which could
encompass studying and understanding all of the relative sciences (e.g.
physics, chemistry, biology, etc) to simply an individual who desires to gain
knowledge about the world around them. In todays context, a scientist
performs experiments and researches data in a certain area of study, who
might then go on to publish and/or talk about their findings with their fellow
scientists and maybe even the public. People want to rely on these scientists
on having good, honest, non-fabricated data so that their lives are much
easier to live and not filled with the worry of is this bridge safe to drive
across? or will this medicine help me get better while minimalizing adverse
side effects?
This also ties in the big factor of safety in honest scientific research.
Without honesty, there is a level of distrust along with a little fear coming
from the public. The common people want to be able to live their lives with
ease, and if they are in constant fear of will this structure hold? their level
of trust for the scientific community will decrease. This is vital because the
general public has shown levels of distrust in certain groups of people. Take
the government for example. There are many conspiracy theories that
involve the government surrounding the 9/11 attacks, spying done by the
NSA and other agencies on the public through private means, and even the
JFK shooting. These events lead people to start losing their trust in their own

government. If the trust level for the scientists and engineers gets reduced
because of dishonest research, is there any group of people living today that
people can wholeheartedly trust; or has the human race become a trust no
one society?
It is extremely difficult to catch and even prevent fraudulent research,
but some methods could be taken to try and prevent dishonesty in the
future. One method is to develop something similar to the Hippocratic Oath
for scientists and engineers. The Hippocratic Oath, in a nutshell, is an oath
taken by doctors and physicians who swear to maintain basic ethical
standards while in practice. Doctors and physicians who abide by this oath
swear that they will only do what is right for their patients and doing
otherwise can result in revocation of his/her medical license (and possibly
other consequences). If something similar is instilled (in writing as well) on
scientists and engineers before they are allowed practice, the possibility of
fabricating data could be reduced from the amount that is done now.
Although this may not work 100% of the time (because sometimes, doctors
and physicians completely ignore the Hippocratic Oath), this is a first step in
significantly diminishing the amount of fraudulent research that gets
published, and could shine a better light on the scientific community in the
eyes of the public.