He hunts sloppy scientists. It finds a lot of prey.
Meet Sholto David, whose error detection raised a question: If researchers can't get the little things right, what who's wrong?
Sholto David, 32, has a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Newcastle in England. He also develops expertise in detecting errors in scientific articles. Most recently, and notably, he discovered flawed or manipulated data in studies conducted by senior executives at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The institute said it was seeking the retraction of six manuscripts and had found 31 other manuscripts requiring corrections.
From his home in Wales, Dr. David scours new research publications for mislabeled and manipulated images, and he regularly discovers errors, or malfeasance, in some of the most prominent scientific journals. Accuracy is essential because peer-reviewed articles often provide evidence for drug trials or other lines of research. Dr. David said the frequency of such errors suggests an underlying problem for science.
His interview with The New York Times has been edited and condensed.< /p>< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Have you finished chasing scientists for the day?
I didn't have time today 'today. But if I spent a few hours reading articles, I would probably write four or five comments about the errors in scientific articles. It is not difficult to find these problems, and it is not difficult to find them in any institution. They're all there to find, if anyone wants to read the scientific literature.
What motivates you to spend the time to do this?< /p>
I'm not anti-vaccine, I'm not an eccentric conspirator or anything like that. I am a scientist myself and I want the science to be correct.
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Meet Sholto David, whose error detection raised a question: If researchers can't get the little things right, what who's wrong?
Sholto David, 32, has a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Newcastle in England. He also develops expertise in detecting errors in scientific articles. Most recently, and notably, he discovered flawed or manipulated data in studies conducted by senior executives at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The institute said it was seeking the retraction of six manuscripts and had found 31 other manuscripts requiring corrections.
From his home in Wales, Dr. David scours new research publications for mislabeled and manipulated images, and he regularly discovers errors, or malfeasance, in some of the most prominent scientific journals. Accuracy is essential because peer-reviewed articles often provide evidence for drug trials or other lines of research. Dr. David said the frequency of such errors suggests an underlying problem for science.
His interview with The New York Times has been edited and condensed.< /p>< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Have you finished chasing scientists for the day?
I didn't have time today 'today. But if I spent a few hours reading articles, I would probably write four or five comments about the errors in scientific articles. It is not difficult to find these problems, and it is not difficult to find them in any institution. They're all there to find, if anyone wants to read the scientific literature.
What motivates you to spend the time to do this?< /p>
I'm not anti-vaccine, I'm not an eccentric conspirator or anything like that. I am a scientist myself and I want the science to be correct.
We are having difficulty retrieving the content of the article.
< p class="css- 3kpklk">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode, please exit and log in to your Times account, or subscribe to the entire Times.
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