First published 1983
William J. Broad reveals how scientists manipulate data, falsify results, and deceive colleagues in their pursuit of fame and funding. The author documents cases where researchers have fabricated experiments, plagiarized work, and covered up inconvenient findings. Broad examines the pressures that drive scientists to cheat and the institutional failures that allow fraud to flourish. He shows how peer review systems break down and how prestigious journals publish flawed studies. The book explores what happens when the scientific method collides with human ambition and career pressures. Broad offers readers an unsettling look at corruption within institutions we trust to seek truth.
Genres: science, sociology, non-fiction, academia
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, institutional-failure
256 pages · Paperback · Simon and Schuster