Have you ever wondered who gets hurt when students, teachers, journalists, scientists, and other authors are dishonest researchers and writers? Occasionally we read about people who plagiarize their work, try to cheat their way through college, invent news features, copy from others, or fabricate research results.

Former British surgeon Andrew Wakefield published an article in the reputable medical journal The Lancet that seemed to provide evidence that a common immunization against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) could cause autism. Wakefield had fabricated evidence and was found guilty of professional misconduct. He lost his license to practice as a medical doctor. His fraudulent research, however, caused a precipitous drop in vaccinations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In the words of one pediatrician, “That paper killed children.”12 Many American parents still refuse to vaccinate their kids and are causing the spread of diseases that had been eradicated in the United States.13 A Harvard researcher’s purposely nonsensical research paper, consisting of randomly generated text accompanied by two fake authors, was accepted by 17 of 37 medical journals. Journals publishing such bogus research are called predatory publishers. A prominent bioethicist calls such practices “publication pollution.”

Your Task. 

If your instructor directs, individually or as a team, investigate the cases of Andrew Wakefield, Joachim Boldt, Stephen Ambrose, Jayson Blair, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jonah Lehrer, Kaavya Viswanathan, or other infamous plagiarists. Alternatively, you could focus on the case of 200 professors from 50 universities implicated in a massive publishing scam in South Korea.15 Consider the authors’ transgressions, their excuses, and the consequences of their actions. As a team, gather your individual research results, compare notes, and summarize your insights in a memo report to your instructor. This assignment could also be turned into a formal report if the investigation is expanded to include more detailed discussions and more cases.