Real scientists never report fraud
Daniel Lemire writes (in part):
People who want to believe that “peer reviewed work” means “correct work” will object that this is just one case. But what about the recently dismissed Harvard professor Marc Hauser? We find exactly the same story. Marc Hauser published over 200 papers in the best journals, making up data as he went. Again colleagues, journals and collaborators failed to openly challenge him: it took naive students, that is, outsiders, to report the fraud.
While I agree that other “professionals” may not have time to closely check work in the peer review process (see some of the comments), I think that illustrates the valuable role that students can play in the publication process.
Why not have a departmental requirement that papers for publication be circulated among students with an anonymous but public comment mechanism? Students are as pressed for time as anyone but they have the added incentive of wanting to become skilled at criticism of ideas and writing.
Not only would such a review process increase the likelihood of detection of fraud, but it would catch all manner of poor writing or citation practices. I regularly encounter published CS papers that incorrectly cite other published work or that cite work eventually published but under other titles. No fraud, just poor practices.