Science Integrity Workshop : "Detecting Fraud in Biomedical Papers"

2 décembre 2025

Prof. Daniel Croll, Director of CUSO Doctoral Program in Microbial Sciences

Universitiy of Neuchâtel

Elisabeth Bik, PhD, science consultant, Harbers Bik LLC www.scienceintegritydigest.com

The general lecture is designed for a broad audience of faculty, staff, students, and postdoctoral researchers. Dr. Bik will present how she began her work on science integrity, discuss several types of inappropriately duplicated images, and demonstrate how scientific 'sleuths' highlight concerns about research papers on PubPeer. She will also explore how artificial intelligence can both aid in detecting scientific fraud and potentially facilitate it, while highlighting the rise of fraud generated by scientific paper mills. The workshop will last approximately 2.5 hours and offers a more intimate, interactive setting for PhD students only. Dr. Bik will present slides illustrating different types of problems in scientific papers and encourage participants to identify them, allowing the audience to discover their own talents for science sleuthing.

GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE PROGRAM

8h45-12h45

General Lecture (1 hour):

"Errors and Misconduct in Biomedical Research"

The lecture will run for about 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of questions and answers. Dr. Bik will present her work and explain how she and other science 'sleuths' examine the biomedical literature for potential concerns, focusing on photographic figures and other signs of misconduct. While primarily a traditional lecture, Dr. Bik will include a few image forensics 'challenges,' showing slides with duplicated images and asking the audience to identify the issues.

Workshop (2.5 hours):

The workshop will be more interactive than the lecture, covering a broader range of issues, including methodology, statistics, ethical considerations in animal and human research, plagiarism, and figure-related problems. Participants will be encouraged to actively engage and discuss potential issues in scientific papers. The workshop will be highly interactive. Dr. Bik will present slides of problematic figures, graphs, and tables, and invite participants to identify the issues. The session encourages questions, discussion, and hands-on engagement with material.

University of Neuchâtel - room TBD

Dr. Sarah Miéville, Academic Coordinator, CUSO Microbiology  

microbiologie(at)cuso(dot)ch

NO travel costs

OPEN

Deadline of registration 26 November 2025

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