Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2013 Dec;76(6):V-VI.

Plagerism and misconduct in research: where we are and what we can do.

[Article in English, Portuguese]

Chamon W

"The expenditure with inadequate scientific conduct is difficult to estimate. In summary, we assume that the scientific results arising from these studies are useless and therefore the direct and indirect research costs and expenses, not investments. Direct costs are more tangible for being related to resear­ch funding (services, equipment, supplies, travel, etc.). Indirect costs may assume huge magnitudes, as they relate to the damage caused to patients and future research due to inadequate data and conclusions presented(1). The human harm is even more important when we consider the recurrence of fraudulent results. In 2009, the same investigator was found guilty in the publication of over 20 articles, mostly on the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the per operative period, it is estimated that millions of patients have been inappropriately treated based on these results(2). Waste of money with inadequate research was estimated at over half a million dollars in one case and more than one hundred million dollars a year, in the United States(3). If we assume that the number of articles published annually nearly doubled in the past 10 years, reaching almost 2 million in 2010(4) and that the percentage of articles presenting misconduct can reach more than 20%(5), we can perceive that research ethics should be a concern of the population, payers and serious researchers(6,7)."

.