Scientific misconduct in environmental science and toxicology
H. N. Nigg and G. Radulescu
Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Lake Alfred 33850.
Scientific misconduct easily occurs in environmental science and
toxicology; we encountered four such cases. Only one case was discovered by
editors; three were reported by other authors. All guilty authors were
eventually banned from future publication in the Bulletin of Environmental
Contamination and Toxicology. Cases in the Bulletin indicate that
scientific misconduct may occur undetected across phyla, genera, and
species; that distance from the publishing source makes detection more
difficult; that editors and reviewers are not organized to take action
against scientific misconduct; that plagiarized authors are likely to
report plagiarism; and that there is only a small risk of censure from any
source for authors engaging in scientific misconduct.