Nick Wise is a postdoc in fluid dynamics at Cambridge University. We talk about his 'detective work' on publication fraud which has gotten more than 800 papers retracted to date, including tortured phrases, discovering Facebook groups and Telegram channels in which people sell authorships on papers, how 'Special' issues can be exploited, and what we can do about this.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps
0:00:00: How Nick got involved with publication fraud: tortured phrases
0:18:26: Why do people try to publish nonsense papers?
0:24:27: The ecosystem of fraudulent publishing
0:30:22: 'Special' issues
0:49:02: How does Nick do this detective work?
1:00:37: What can we do about publication fraud?
1:38:52: There are practically no jobs to work full-time on fraud detection
1:49:37: A book or paper more people should read
1:55:13: Something Nick wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:57:21: Advice for PhD students/postdocs

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Nick's links

• Website: https://geni.us/n-wise-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/n-wise-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/n-wise-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References & links

Episodes with Eugenie Reich: https://geni.us/bjks-reich

Episode with Elisabeth Bik: https://geni.us/bjks-bik

Episode with Adam Mastroianni: https://geni.us/bjks-mastroianni_2

Dorothy Bishop awards 2024: https://www.ukrn.org/2024/03/28/winners-of-the-2024-dorothy-bishop-prize/

Nick's guest blog post on Dorothy Bishop's blog: http://deevybee.blogspot.com/2022/10/what-is-going-on-in-hindawi-special.html

Nick's talk at Cambridge: https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4117618

Everything Hertz podcast: https://everythinghertz.com/

James Heathers's series of posts on Hindawi: https://jamesclaims.substack.com/p/the-hindawi-files-part-1-the-timeline

Coffeezilla: https://www.youtube.com/@Coffeezilla

Barnaby Jack's talk at DefCon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkteGFfvwJ0

Cabanac, Labbé & Magazinov (2021). Tortured phrases: A dubious writing style emerging in science. Evidence of critical issues affecting established journals. arXiv.
Mastroianni & Ludwin-Peery (2022). Things could be better. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2uxwk
Reich (2009). Plastic fantastic: How the biggest fraud in physics shook the scientific world.

This is the 2nd part of my interview with Eugenie Reich, who is a lawyer who defends scientific whistleblowers, and a former investigative science journalist. We talk about her transition from journalism to law, and discuss the legal aspects of scientific fraud: why fraudsters rarely go to prison, what whistleblowers are legally allowed to do, how and when to seek legal advice, and much more. Obviously, none of this is legal advice, but hopefully it provides some useful pointers.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps
0:00:00: How Eugenie went from science journalist to being a lawyer and defending whistleblowers
0:13:15: Why do most people who commit scientific fraud not go to prison?
0:32:36: What are whistleblowers allowed to do?
0:48:24: What if I get sued for reporting scientific misconduct?
0:56:32: How do fraudsters try to intimidate whistleblowers?
1:01:24: What if I can't afford legal help?
1:06:18: Eugenie's plans for the future

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Eugenie's links

• Website: https://geni.us/reich-web
• Twitter: https://geni.us/reich-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References and links

Woo-Suk Hwang affair: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_affair
Theranos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theranos
Cassava: https://www.science.org/content/article/company-misled-investors-possible-alzheimer-s-drug-sec-charges
Eric Poehlman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Poehlman
Luk van Parijs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luk_Van_Parijs
The Scientific Integrity Fund: https://scientificintegrityfund.org/

Reich (2009). Plastic fantastic: How the biggest fraud in physics shook the scientific world.
Reich (2011). Fraud case we might have seen coming. Nature News.

Eugenie Reich is an attorney who defends scientific whistleblowers, and a former investigative science journalist. We talk about her previous work as a science journalist, in particular her book Plastic Fantastic about one of the biggest fraud cases in physics, the case of Jan-Hendrik Schön. We'd planned to also discuss Eugenie's current work as an attorney, but spent all our time on the Schön case. Eugenie kindly agreed to do another interview, in which we cover the legal aspects of fraud, which will be the next episode (#106).

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps
0:00:00: One of the biggest fraud cases in physics/all of science
0:05:47: How and why Eugenie started writing about the Schön case
0:09:26: Why did Schön commit fraud?
0:19:30: Schön's PhD: he never saved any original data
0:30:05: Bell Labs vs. Schön's PhD lab: long-term revolutions vs. short-term applications
0:36:42: Schön's first work at Bell Labs was 'unpublishable'
0:41:42: How to get away with fraud: pretend you collected data in another lab
0:47:45: Bertram Batlogg and the role of the supervisors of fraudsters
0:56:20: How the bursting of the Dot-Com Bubble and 9/11 may (indirectly) have exacerbated Schön's fraud
1:01:09: How to use your colleagues' ideas to commit better fraud
1:05:05: How Schön's fraud unraveled
1:13:45: What is Schön doing now?
1:18:11: A book or paper more people should read
1:20:20: Something Eugenie wishes she'd learnt sooner
1:22:58: Advice for PhD students/postdocs

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Eugenie's links

• Website: https://geni.us/reich-web
• Twitter: https://geni.us/reich-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References and links

Episode with Simine Vazire: https://geni.us/bjks-vazire
Episode with Elisabeth Bik: https://geni.us/bjks-bik

Bell Labs (2002). The Schon report: https://media-bell-labs-com.s3.amazonaws.com/pages/20170403_1709/misconduct-revew-report-lucent.pdf
Reich (2009). Plastic fantastic: How the biggest fraud in physics shook the scientific world.
Shapin & Schaffer (1985). Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life.