The real scandal is the web of bad incentives in academia. Sure it results in fake data scandals like this one. But even studies without faked data are mostly bad, often due to a poor grasp of statistics, poor control of confounding factors, or other issues. Everyone wants to pretend they’ve made some important contribution but publishing is basically a weak signal that serves as a ladder to some other goal like a professorship or industry job. The ones caught up in a scandal are a symptom of bigger problems not the root cause.
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The real scandal is the web of bad incentives in academia. Sure it results in fake data scandals like this one. But even studies without faked data are mostly bad, often due to a poor grasp of statistics, poor control of confounding factors, or other issues. Everyone wants to pretend they’ve made some important contribution but publishing is basically a weak signal that serves as a ladder to some other goal like a professorship or industry job. The ones caught up in a scandal are a symptom of bigger problems not the root cause.