Fabrication, in the context of scientific inquiry and academic research, refers to the act of intentionally falsifying research results, such as reported in a journal article. Fabrication is considered a form of scientific misconduct, and is regarded as highly unethical. In some jurisdictions, fabrication may be illegal. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Science For the scientific journal named Science, see Science (journal). ... Plato is credited with the inception of academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations. ... A journal (through French from late Latin diurnalis, daily) is a daily record of events or business. ... Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in professional scientific research. ...

The word falsifying used above should not be confused with the legitimate and essential activity of finding and sharing evidence that contradicts a hypothesis (see falsifiability) but is used in the sense of deliberately presenting known false information as true with the intent to deceive. Neither should the concept be applied to a scientist or a group of scientists deceiving themselves; this behaviour is sometimes called pathological science. A hypothesis (foundation from ancient Greek hupothesis where hupo = under and thesis = placing) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. ... Falsifiability is an important concept in the philosophy of science that amounts to the principle that a proposition or theory cannot be scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown false. ... FALSE is an esoteric programming language designed by Wouter van Oortmerssen in 1993, named after his favourite boolean value. ... When someone sincerely agrees with an assertion, they might claim that it is the truth. ... Pathological science is a neologism to pejoratively describe the pursuit of pseudoscientific claims as like a pathology, or Such claims are said to be distinguished from pseudoscience (itself a pejorative) in that they have a larger and more dogmatic following, and are asserted to be based in self-deception amongst...

Examples of activities which constitute fabrication include:

• Outright synthesis of experimental data; reporting experiments which were never conducted.
• "Fudging", "massaging", or outright manufacture of experimental data.
• Inappropriate, and statistically invalid, "culling" of experimental data, such as the intentional exclusion of experimental runs which contradict the hypothesis the scientist is trying to demonstrate, or excessive filtration of "noise" which suggests a correlation where none can be shown to exist.
• Intentional portrayal of interdependent events as independent.
• Ordering subordinates or research assistants to participate in any of the above.

In addition, some forms of (unintentional) academic incompetence or malpractice can be difficult to distinguish, upon examination, for intentional fabrication. Examples of this include the failure to account for measurement error, or the failure to adequately control experiments for the parameter(s) being measured.

Fabrication can also occur in the context of undergraduate or graduate studies, wherein a student fabricates a laboratory or homework assignment. Such cheating, when discovered, is usually handled within the institution, and does not become a scandal within the larger academic community (as cheating by students seldom has any academic signficance). This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Consequences

Fabrication is generally considered the most serious form of scientific misconduct that a scientist can engage in, and a finding that a scientist engaged in fabrication will often mean the end to his career as a researcher. Scientific misconduct is grounds for dismissal of tenured faculty, as well as for forfeiture of research grants. Given the tight-knit nature of many academic communities, and the high stakes involved, researchers who are found to have committed fabrication are often effectively (and permanently) blacklisted from the profession, with reputable research organizations and universities refusing to hire them; funding sources refusing to sponsor them or their work, and journals refusing to consider any of their articles for publication. Tenure commonly refers to academic tenure systems, in which professors (at the university level)—and in some jurisdictions schoolteachers (at primary or secondary school levels)—are granted the right not to be fired without cause after an initial probationary period. ... A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, or mobility. ...

Fabricators may also have previously-earned academic credentials taken away. In 2004, Jan Hendrik Schön was stripped of his doctorate degree by the University of Konstanz after a committee formed by Bell Labs found him guilty of fabrication related to research done during his employment there. This action was undertaken even though Schön was not accused (in the matter in question) of any fabrication or other misconduct relating to his work which lead to or supported the degree--the doctorate was revoked, according to University officials, solely due to Schön behaving "unworthily" in the Bell Labs affair. [1] Jan Hendrik Schön (born 1970) is a German physicist who briefly rose to prominence after a series of apparent breakthroughs (recipient of Otto-Klung-Weberbank Prize for Physics in 2001, Braunschweig Prize in 2001 and Outstanding Young Investigator Award of the Materials Research Society in 2002), which were later... The University of Konstanz (Universität Konstanz) is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...