This lecture will address the apparent increase in scientific misconduct that has been reported in recent years from the point of view of an active worker in organic and inorganic chemistry. After a discussion of primary scientific fraud, such as plagiarism and data fabrication, the general question of scientific data reproducibility will be considered. The talk will assess the level of reproducibility of most research in the synthetic chemical literature, and then focus on two journals, Organic Synthesis and Inorganic Synthesis, which are among the only organs that provide a source of direct information about the reproducibility of submitted experiments. The talk will consider the question of whether trying to insure reproducibility necessarily acts as a effective means of protecting science from fraud, and will discuss “semi-fraud”: the conscious and unconscious manipulation of data.

Irreproducibility in the scientific literature or: How often do scientists tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

249th National Meeting (2015)

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