Science integrity sleuths welcome legal aid fund for whistleblowers

A Silicon Valley investor has pledged $1 million to help pay the legal costs of scientists being sued for flagging fraudulent research. Yun-Fang Juan, an engineer and data scientist by background, hopes the new Scientific Integrity Fund—the first of its kind—will make speaking up about wrongdoing less intimidating. The fund comes after a spate of cases in which high-profile scientists have retracted papers after whistleblowers made allegations of research fraud. “As scientists, we need to be able to ask questions and raise concerns about other researchers’ work, without the risk of being sued, or going bankrupt because we have to hire a lawyer,” says prominent science sleuth Elisabeth Bik, an adviser to the fund. A fund like this is long overdue, says University of Virginia psychologist Brian Nosek, who studies research reproducibility and is not involved in the effort. And $1 million is a good start, he adds, although it may not be enough given the extent of the problems. Many researchers who expose potentially shoddy research do this work in addition to their day jobs, without support from their funders or institutions. In many cases, the threat of costly legal action can silence critics, leaving the scientific record uncorrected, which risks other researchers wasting funding by chasing down blind alleys. Until now, sleuths facing legal bills often relied on finding a lawyer to work pro bono, launching a crowdfunding campaign, or convincing an em...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news