Emil O W Kirkegaard

I was on MRC group addressing this topic a few years ago. Surprised to find cases of overt fraud outnumbered++ by lax quality control in multi country studies. In-country investigators left to get on with it.

though of course you don't know what the fraud rate is, if they are good fraudsters.

One of the fascinating questions for me is whether there are any good fraudsters. Competent people maybe don't need to cheat. More worrying is the idea that entire research areas are inherently semi-fraudulent without anyone realising it or having "cackling villain" intent.

By semi-fraudulent I mean "incapable of leading anywhere", possibly in ways that are (at least initially) not clear to those involved. Then over time it slips into a funding/jobs machine that nobody has any interest in stopping. Cf. recent revelations about 5-HTTLPR.

I've just been re-reading Bem's chapter in the Compleat Academic, a book sold as " invaluable guidance that will help new academics plan, play, and ultimately win the academic career game." Many statements indicating he thinks p-hacking is not immoral.

He thinks it is the mark of a great scientist!

I've read that some people think that "Feeling the Future" was a subversive attempt by Bem to point out the problems in the field. Perhaps he had been trolling everyone for many years before as well?

If that's true, he's an incredibly good actor. I've met him (very nice guy!) and he really does seem to believe in the findings.