Comment by ceejayoz

3 days ago

It's not legal, but intentional misconduct can be tough to prove.

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/professor-charged-op...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Poehlman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Reuben

> in every other industry that i can imagine

Our own industry (tech) is rife with unpunished fraud.

Note both those guys were found guilty for taking government money under false pretenses (to do with fake science, not for doing fake science, which is more supporting evidence that fake science is legal.

  • The government funds an enormous proportion of research, and they've got a lot more power to do something about it when you make them mad.

> intentional misconduct can be tough to prove

It's hard to prove when it isn't investigated. How many of the debunked psychology professors took federal funding? How many have been criminally investigated?

  • > How many of the debunked psychology professors took federal funding?

    But being wrong isn't a crime. Intentional fraud is.

    > It's hard to prove when it isn't investigated.

    And it's hard to investigate without some reasonably solid evidence of a crime.