Nepal, Feb. 2 -- Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking about two related aspects of higher education and research. First, the general issue of research misconduct, of which plagiarism is a particular type. Second, the general issue of nurturing research, of which the written article is a particular type of output. I will only discuss the first issue today.

Fraud to neglect

Research misconduct can come in many avatars. In the basic sciences, this can entail outright fraud, such as manufacturing trial/lab data and doing an analysis based on such fabricated data. While there are many monetary and professional incentives for scientists to engage in such full-scale fraud, the sanctions for those who are adjudged (not simply accused) ...