Fraud in medical research: An international survey of biostatisticians

The characteristics of scientific fraud and its impact on medical research are in general not well known. However, the interest in the phenomenon has increased steadily during the last decade. Biostatisticians routinely work closely with physicians and scientists in many branches of medical research and have therefore unique insight into data. In addition, they have method ological competence to detect fraud and could be expected to have a profess ional interest in valid results. Biostatisticians therefore are likely to p rovide reliable information on the characteristics of fraud in medical rese arch. The objective of this survey of biostatisticians, who were members of the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics, was to assess the ch aracteristics of fraud in medical research. The survey was performed betwee n April and July 1998. The participation rate was only 37%. We report the r esults because a majority (51%) of the participants knew about fraudulent p rojects, and many did not know whether the organization they work for has a formal system for handling suspected fraud or not. Different forms of frau d (e.g., fabrication and falsification of data, deceptive reporting of resu lts, suppression of data, and deceptive design or analysis) had been observ ed in fairly similar numbers. We conclude that fraud is not a negligible ph enomenon in medical research, and that increased awareness of the forms in which it is expressed seems appropriate.