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Research Integrity: Sabotage
Sat, 2010-10-02 14:45 - Sandip Haldar
Research integrity: subotage in Univ of Michigan, Ann Arbor
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100929/full/467516a.html
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unfortunate
Dear Sandeep,
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. It is indeed unfortunate that this has happened; I also believe that it would not be the first time that the person in question carried out such acts (but this is only an opinion, and does not reflect any knowledge of the person). I personally know some people who would have done this - I bet all of us do. I bet all of us also know extremely ethical people who would never do something remotely unethical, perhaps at risk of damage to their careers as well.
I amounts to extremely poor judgement on his part, and I believe it is a result of 1) the person's personality 2) the the hypercompetitive nature of undergraduate and pre-undergraduate education in India. The fact that it was caught is a result of the openness and high scientific integrity present in most of the US. I am sure thousands of such cases go unreported in India.
Amit
Dear Amit, I agree with
Dear Amit,
I agree with you that this is a very unfortunate event and the person involved should be duly punished. There should be more emphasis on ethics in science and students should be taught to deal with competition in an ethical way. However, please don't blame an entire nation's education system based on a single person's misjudgement. The education system in India is highly competitive, but that competition has also produced many gems of researchers. It is very dangerous to draw generalized conclusions based on a specific event.
Arun
Amit, I strongly disagree
With your second comment that ties it to educational system in India and strongly agree with the first one instead. My experience has been just opposite - people of various countries including US do such shameful acts. It has nothing to do with country of origin and we should just leave it there.