Incentives in Academic Research
5th October 2026
Recently, I have bumped into multiple cases where I believe the correctness of the results, the honesty of the people writing them, or the lack of curiosity once they are told that their results are wrong, incorrect, faulty, or misleading, has been unsatisfying. Simply put, researchers are not too interested in learning that their papers or reports are wrong, and/or misleading others who don’t happen to know that the results are — known to the authors, and a few select others to be partially — incorrect.
The issue is, once you published the paper, and got the promotions and fame, it doesn’t matter that the results are wrong, and known to be wrong or misleading, and potentially doing harm to the advancement of science. It’s not your problem. It’s someone else’s problem. In fact, when I challenged the authors of one such paper, considered state-of-the-art, and known to the authors to have incorrect evaluation, one of the author’s response was along the lines of acknowledging the issues, but refusing to retract the paper, and instead asking if it’s bothering me in publishing my paper.
Hey, tenure doesn’t grow on trees. (Remember this the next time you trip over somebody shouting TRUST THE SCIENCE!)