Case 2e :
Fabrication—Sources of Questionable Origin
Shay always remembered his first cosmology professor insisting that the students use the most recent literature.
He said often,
"In rock music, there are 'oldies but goodies', but in science, you have to keep up with the trends".
"If it is older than 3 years, it's a dinosaur", was another quote Shay remembered fondly.
But, now, confronted with the task of finding sources to finish an unusual section in his "review of the literature" for his dissertation and finding that the most comprehensive literature was written in the early 1900s, Shay is questioning the wisdom of following the professor's rules.
Shay feels he has two options for solving the problem of the "old" literature: cite it with the original dates and hope that his readers can appreciate "the classics", or cite the literature and update the dates a bit. Shay feels uneasy changing the dates on the articles and books he must cite, but he does not want his readers, particularly his external reader who is known to be a very difficult examiner, to think he is not well versed in the current literature.
Sitting in his office, he does a quick scan of some dissertations in his field on World Wide Scientific Abstracts and finds that only the theoretical dissertations cite material older than 3-5 years. And, well, he certainly does not want to be considered a theorist—he has some very interesting data! Armed with this information, Shay decides to update his citations, changing 1900 dates to 2000 dates. If anyone asks, he can just blame the "error" on a glitch in his citation management software, right?
Case Questions
Imagine you are a friend of Shay and he reveals his deed to you over a few pints of beer to celebrate your successful examination:
- Would you tell Shay he has done anything wrong?
- As a more senior researcher well versed in research integrity, would you argue to Shay that he has committed a) no wrongdoing, b) an act of questionable research practice, or c) an act of research misconduct?
- On what grounds would you defend your position?
- By the same token, is there anything wrong with backdating sources i.e., changing the citations from 2000 dates to 1900 dates?