Male life scientists have committed fraud more often than women.
Men have committed research fraud more often than women, according to a study published on 22 January (F. C. Fang et al. MBio 4, e00640-12). The authors reviewed 215 cases of fraud in the life sciences reported by the US Office of Research Integrity between 1994 and 2012. Of those, 65% were committed by male scientists. In cases involving US faculty members, 70% of whom are men, male researchers were responsible 88% of the time. In those involving postdocs, of whom 61% are male, it was 69%. Arturo Casadevall, a microbiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who led the study, says that the finding underscores the need for ongoing ethics training.
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Fraud by gender. Nature 493, 711 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7434-711b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7434-711b