Update: whilst developing the new website, I returned to my original choice of name, only put off by seeing it was a fairly well-used play on words, but it’s so fitting for this project, it had to be, REIGN OF ERROR.

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While writing continues at a furious pace, a small side project that has taken up far too much time is seeing the light of day at last. RETRACTA --> REIGN OF ERROR, is a website that presents The Worst Cases of Bad Science. This is the type of research work that makes you cringe, not so much because of major failings, such as fraudulent plagiarism, although that does feature too. The other type of error is officially considered less of a misdemeanor, but thought worse than fraud amongst co-workers. This is according to a recent survey published by a Dutch team,

Lex M. Bouter, Joeri Tijdink, Nils Axelsen, Brian C. Martinson and Gerben ter Riet (2016) Ranking major and minor research misbehaviors: results from a survey among participants of four World Conferences on Research Integrity. Research Integrity and Peer Review 1:17. DOI: 10.1186/s41073-016-0024-5

Those major contraventions of academic principles, they call Fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism (FFP), while the other class has the name, Questionable research practices (QRP). To get off to a flying start, the first case presented has both, QRP in the main, but a sprinkling of FFP as well. My reasons for investigating the case are explained in the dossier which catalogues umpteen silly mistakes, empteen failings in scientific methodology, and ampteen instances of unprofessionalism. It's a gas! So head on over and get stuck in to,

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