Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science
Encyclopedia
Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science is a book by William Broad
and Nicholas Wade
, published in 1982 by Simon & Schuster
in New York, and subsequently (1983) also by Century Publishing in London, and by Oxford University Press
in 1985. The book is a critique of some widely held beliefs about the nature of science and the scientific process.
The book argues that the conventional wisdom that science is a strictly logical process, with objectivity the essence of scientist's attitudes, errors being speedily corrected by rigorous peer scrutiny and experiment replication, is a mythical ideal.
The authors present a series of case studies associated with the conduct of scientific research, from the manipulation of results to the total fabrication of whole experiments.
William Broad
William J. Broad is an author and a Senior Writer at The New York Times.-Awards:Broad has won two Pulitzer Prizes with Times colleagues, as well as an Emmy and a DuPont. He won the Pulitzers for coverage of the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the feasibility of antimissile arms...
and Nicholas Wade
Nicholas Wade
Nicholas Wade is a British-born scientific reporter, editor and author who currently writes for the Science Times section of The New York Times.-Biography:Wade was born in Aylesbury, England and educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge...
, published in 1982 by Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
in New York, and subsequently (1983) also by Century Publishing in London, and by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
in 1985. The book is a critique of some widely held beliefs about the nature of science and the scientific process.
The book argues that the conventional wisdom that science is a strictly logical process, with objectivity the essence of scientist's attitudes, errors being speedily corrected by rigorous peer scrutiny and experiment replication, is a mythical ideal.
Our conclusion, in brief, is that science bears little resemblance to its conventional portrait. We believe that the logical structure discernible in scientific knowledge says nothing about the process by which the structure was built or the mentality of the builders. In the acquisition of knowledge, scientists are not guided by logic and objectivity alone, but also by such nonrational factors as rhetoric, propaganda, and personal prejudice. Scientists do not depend solely on rational thought, and have no monopoly on it.
The authors present a series of case studies associated with the conduct of scientific research, from the manipulation of results to the total fabrication of whole experiments.
Chapters
- 1 The Flawed Ideal
- 2 Deceit in History
- 3 Rise of the Careerists
- 4 The Limits of Replication
- 5 Powers of the Elite
- 6 Self-deception and Gullibility
- 7 The Myth of Logic
- 8 Masters and Apprentice
- 9 Immunity from Scrutiny
- 10 Retreat under Pressure
- 11 The Failure of Objectivity
- 12 Fraud and the Structure of Science
See also
- List of books about the politics of science
- Least publishable unitLeast publishable unitIn academic publishing, the least publishable unit , also smallest publishable unit or minimum publishable unit , colloquially "publon" - the smallest measurable quantum of publication, is the minimum amount of information that can generate a publication in a peer-reviewed journal...
- Discussed in chapter 3, 'Rise of the Careerists'.