Thread by @Ayjchan

People are asking what is going on with the #PangolinPapers

tldr multiple groups of scientists published non-reproducible papers on a pangolin virus that caused a media frenzy over pangolins as an intermediate host of SARS2 in 2020.

Instead of retracting the papers...

... the journals gave each team of scientists a year or more to gather data that actually supported their findings, which were meanwhile cited and incorporated across hundreds of studies.

The resulting massive corrections reveal at best highly negligent scientific conduct.

If authors are not penalized for this type of behavior, does it mean that our top journals are now permitting scientists to submit papers with whatever results they like, and only if they get called out by other scientists, then they are given a year to gather actual data?

One of the journal editors even admitted that he had not verified the only novel data reported by one of the #PangolinPapers and that no one had checked to see if the authors had actually provided the data they claimed to have.
usrtk.org/wp-content/upl…

Ok, guys, if the mode of operation is:

1. Submit a paper with results you wish you had.

2. Wait to see if anyone calls you out.

3. When the journal asks you to please produce the data, you have an indefinite amount of time to obtain said data...

I predict that we desperately need a new system of scientific publishing.

Are there any other scientists who are appalled or does everyone else think it's ok to conduct science in this manner?

I anticipate that some scientists will say, “but they managed to find data supporting their findings after one year.”

You should leave science. This is not a place where people should publish what they wish they had, wait to be caught, and then given infinite time to find data.