Scientific Research Fraud is on the Rise--Especially in China

In accounting research, we had the first retraction in decades in the past year. Soon after the retraction, evidence was provided suggesting that the retracted article reported some very suspicious claims that were essentially impossible. The author(s) never provided a rebuttal to the claims and the author who claimed to obtain the amazing data for the article suddenly retired and is reportedly very hard (or impossible) to contact. While the retraction never stated that the article was a fraud, it all seems very suspicious...

In the harder sciences, The Economist reported this week that there has recently been a sudden uptick in fraudulent scientific research, especially in China. Here is a taste of the article: