Jun 21, 2020

Jonathan and Chris interview Dr. Elisabeth Bik, a science detective who has dedicated herself to identifying and reporting image duplications in the scientific literature that can be due to errors… or to fraud. This interview is part of a continuing series on bad science, including the special “Science Is a Human Enterprise” (part 1 and part 2) and the interview with Dr. Brian Nosek.

1:16 How Dr. Bik became a science detective

3:28 Duplications

10:43 Music or no music?

11:10 Screening 20,000 papers for duplications

16:38 Speed versus accuracy in the age of COVID

17:41 The failures of peer review

21:37 Dr. Bik’s frustration

24:55 Justice League versus Paper Mill

34:33 Make a wish for a healthier science

39:27 Dr. Bik’s drinking game

43:02 How fraudsters may cheat automation in the future

46:05 Will the cockroaches scare the public?

* Theme music: "Troll of the Mountain Swing" by the Underscore Orkestra.

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Links:

1) Dr. Bik’s paper on screening 20,000 articles for duplications: https://mbio.asm.org/content/7/3/e00809-16

2) Dr. Bik on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MicrobiomDigest

3) Dr. Bik’s website: https://scienceintegritydigest.com/

4) PubPeer: https://pubpeer.com/