https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-31/on-the-trail-of-dodgy-academic-research/100788052

Australia lacks watchdog for research integrity

Despite more than $11 billion dollars being spent by the federal government on research and development each year, there isn’t an independent body designated to investigate allegations of misconduct.

“Australia is one of the only countries in the world that doesn’t have a national office for research integrity. You know, 20 European countries do. The US does, Canada, Japan, even China,” Professor Vaux said.

“Australia has a national office for integrity in sports, but we don’t have one for integrity in research”.

we mean apart from the obvious yet veiled bias in the “even” there

this is all SCIENCE’s fault

surely all those very smart researchers can just be politicians

sibeen said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

ChrispenEvan said:

Dodgy construction science?

Thanks for that CE.

I had no idea about this, and reading the article heading I wouldn’t have picked up that it was about “construction science” (or structural engineering, as it is normally known).

The academic, who did not want to be named, said they believed none of the errors would have been picked up had it not been for the whistleblower.

ROFL

the local responses to date

> Australia lacks watchdog for research integrity

OMG. Australia doesn’t want a watchdog for research integrity. Another level of bleeding namagement red tape.
We already have too much of that now with ethics and finance committees and journal guidlines. And in a lot of cases also peer review by biased peers.

Trust is a two way street. If you don’t trust the researchers, they won’t trust you.

pretty sure trust and verify is a better strategy than trust and close eyes

SCIENCE said:

pretty sure trust and verify is a better strategy than trust and close eyes

Yep.