Science is in crisis because papers are being retracted

So says Carl Zimmer in the New York Times. Maybe he’s right. I don’t know. But here’s what struck me as odd. The last article by Zimmer I remember reading was all about how science is in crisis because papers aren’t being retracted.

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Ted Bunn

I am chair of the physics department at the University of Richmond. In addition to teaching a variety of undergraduate physics courses, I work on a variety of research projects in cosmology, the study of the origin, structure, and evolution of the Universe. University of Richmond undergraduates are involved in all aspects of this research. If you want to know more about my research, ask me!

4 thoughts on “Science is in crisis because papers are being retracted”

  1. Just a note (send me an email if you see this but it does not appear in the blog): my comments used to show up right away; now they don’t. They do get noticed, though, since sending the same one again gives a “duplicate” message.

  2. Apologies if anyone sees too many comments from me here. There was essentially the same problem with all WordPress blogs today with my comments not appearing.

    There is not necessarily a contradiction. Bad papers being retracted is bad because of the bad papers, but bad papers not being retracted is bad because of the bad papers and because they are not retracted. So, if there are bad papers, the situation is always more or less bad.

  3. “What level of retractions would indicate that science is no longer in crisis?”

    If the problem is bad articles, then say so. Don’t disguise it behind hand-wringing over retractions.

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