Tag Archives: paper retractions

Canadian Science Policy Centre and its February 26, 2025 online event: Maintaining trust in published scientific research

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This is old news and it’s an excuse to take a walk down memory lane. First, a February 6, 2025 Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) notice (received via email) contained an event announcement,

Reports of research fraud and mass retractions have combined with populist distrust of expertise to contribute to widespread mistrust of scientific research. This session, composed of panelists with backgrounds in research, ethics, and publishing, will explore some of the many ways that allies within the research ecosystem can rebuild readers’ trust in science, including readers in within [sic] the research community itself, policymakers, and the public. Key topics will include research fraud, ethics education, peer review, open science practices, and research assessment reform.

Click the button below to register for the panel!

Register Now

I’ve occasionally written about problematic science research with the most extraordinary case I can recall being that of Paolo Macchiarini. Like a lot of other people, he fooled me. Once I realized that his work was deeply problematic, I started digging. The results can be seen in my April 19. 2016 postings (part one) and (part two). I also provided an update in my December 31, 2023 posting, where I note consequences for Macchiarini under the ‘A long time coming, a nanomedicine comeuppance’ subhead and provide more details under the ‘Other players in the Macchiarini story’ subhead.

Getting back to the panel on February 26, 2025, the event description seemed more focused on how problems with scientific research have fused with current ‘populist’ mistrust of science rather than on scientific malfeasance per se.

I have more details from the CSPC’s Maintaining trust in published scientific research event page,

Details

Date: Feb 26

Time: 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm EST

Event Category: Virtual Session

Website: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JALnFZSlS6yTCfRO_p-asg

Venue

Zoom

…

Email: info@sciencepolicy.ca

Here’s more about the panel,

David Moher is a clinical epidemiologist, and Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, where he directs the Centre for Journalology (publication science). He is also a full Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa and full Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Professor Moher spends his time trying to help improve academic scholarship.

Panelist: Natasha McDonald

Natasha McDonald is responsible for advancing the system of peer review at Canadian Science Publishing to yield a more inclusive, transparent, and rigorous research output. She is passionate about Open Science and is a proponent of challenging long-held narratives in scientific publishing that have led to the underrepresentation of researchers from a number of communities and regions. Before moving into scholarly publishing, she held a career as a researcher in the field of marine biogeochemistry. She currently serves as a Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) UN SDG [sustainable development goals] Publishers Compact Fellow.

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a professor and research chair at the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary (Canada). Dr. Eaton leads transdisciplinary research teams focused on integrity and ethics in educational contexts. Dr. Eaton also holds a concurrent appointment as an Honorary Associate Professor, Deakin University, Australia.

Juan Pablo Alperin is an associate professor in the School of Publishing, scientific director of the Public Knowledge Project, and the co-director of the Scholarly Communications Lab at Simon Fraser University, Canada. He is a multi-disciplinary scholar who uses a combination of computational techniques and traditional qualitative methods to investigate ways of raising the scientific quality, global impact, and public use of scholarly work.

Kaia Motter is Head of Academic Affairs, North America at Springer Nature where she leads academic affairs activities in the US and Canada, building relationships and collaborating with funders, institutions, and other non-profit organizations in the region. Kaia has a background in publishing, having held editorial positions at Elsevier and Wiley. In recent years, her work has been centered on open science development, policy, and outreach with a topical focus on research assessment reform, research integrity, AI, and other issues impacting the research community.

That was a lot more (three panelists?) focus about publishing than I was expecting.