SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TOXICOLOGY

Scientific misconduct easily occurs in environmental science and toxic ology; we encountered four such cases. Only one case was discovered by editors; three were reported by other authors. All guilty authors wer e eventually banned from future publication in the Bulletin of Environ mental Contamination and Toxicology. Cases in the Bulletin indicate th at scientific misconduct may occur undetected across phyla, genera, an d species; that distance from the publishing source makes detection mo re difficult; that editors and reviewers are not organized to take act ion against scientific misconduct; that plagiarized authors are likely to report plagiarism; and that there is only a small risk of censure from any source for authors engaging in scientific misconduct.