Interview - Elisabeth Bik, Science Detective

Jonathan and Chris interview Dr.

Elisabeth Bik, a science detective who has dedicated herself to identifying and reporting image duplications in the scientific literature that can be due to errors… or to fraud.

This interview is part of a continuing series on bad science, including the special “Science Is a Human Enterprise” (part 1 and part 2) and the interview with Dr.

Brian Nosek. 1:16 How Dr.

Bik became a science detective 3:28 Duplications 10:43 Music or no music? 11:10 Screening 20,000 papers for duplications 16:38 Speed versus accuracy in the age of COVID 17:41 The failures of peer review 21:37 Dr.

Bik’s frustration 24:55 Justice League versus Paper Mill 34:33 Make a wish for a healthier science 39:27 Dr.

Bik’s drinking game 43:02 How fraudsters may cheat automation in the future 46:05 Will the cockroaches scare the public? * Theme music: "Troll of the Mountain Swing" by the Underscore Orkestra.

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Links: 1) Dr.

Bik’s paper on screening 20,000 articles for duplications: https://mbio.asm.org/content/7/3/e00809-16 2) Dr.

Bik on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MicrobiomDigest 3) Dr.

Bik’s website: https://scienceintegritydigest.com/ 4) PubPeer: https://pubpeer.com/