Should academic misconduct be catalogued? Proposed US database sparks debate

""We should make it much more difficult for offending scientists to evade accountability without there being appropriate transparency.""

""In the 1980s, the medical field faced a crisis, in which physicians who had engaged in misconduct were relocating across US state lines to escape their reputations.""

A proposal suggests establishing a national database in the U.S. to track researchers guilty of misconduct, such as data fabrication and harassment. This database aims to prevent individuals from evading accountability by moving to new institutions without disclosure. Michael Lauer emphasizes the need for transparency to hold offending scientists accountable. The concept draws parallels to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which was created to address similar issues in the medical field, ensuring hospitals check for malpractice before granting privileges.

Read at Nature