Suggested reading for Michael Mann, Phil Jones, et al

Science 2 December 2011: 
Vol. 334 no. 6060 p. 1182 
DOI: 10.1126/science.1216775

• EDITORIAL

Addressing Scientific Fraud

1. Jennifer Crocker1, 
2. M. Lynne Cooper2

1. ¹Jennifer Crocker is Ohio Eminent Scholar in Social Psychology at the Ohio State University, past president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and chair of the Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association.
2. ²M. Lynne Cooper is Curators' Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri, co-chair of the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association, associate editor of American Psychologist, and former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Research in Personality.

An interim report released in October 2011 by Tilburg University, Netherlands, concluded that one of its faculty members, social psychologist Diederik Stapel, fabricated data for numerous studies conducted over a period of 15 to 20 years.* The good news, of course, is that the fraud was eventually uncovered. The bad news is that it went undetected for so long and involved so many scientific articles—over 100 publications are now under investigation. The costs of the fraud for the careers of young scientists and others who worked with him, for science, and for public trust in science are devastating. As the investigation unfolds, the moment is opportune to reflect on what can be done to protect science and the public from fraud in the future.