Metascience Symposium Recap
At a recent symposium on research integrity, Ioana Alina Cristea, from the Department of General Psychology at the University of Padova, delivered a talk highlighting the often-overlooked obstacles in addressing problematic science. Rather than focusing solely on high-profile cases of fraud — fabricated data, falsified results, or misconduct causing direct harm — Cristea examined the subtler, more pervasive issues that frequently escape scrutiny.
She identified disengagement as one of the most common reactions to criticism of questionable research practices.
“One issue that I think many of us — I for sure — have met when I tried to criticise anything here, is that the most common reaction… is disengagement. Nobody talks to you or [you’re] ignored. We talk to each other.”
According to Cristea, this disengagement shuts down opportunities for dialogue before substantive discussions can take place.
When responses do occur, she observed, they often take the form of strawman arguments.
“The second one is creating a strawman position and people think, ‘But don’t you agree fraud is bad? Don’t you agree these cases… where researchers fabricated the entire data? Patients died, treatments were…’”
Such tactics divert attention away from the systemic flaws and everyday questionable practices that undermine research credibility. By reframing the discussion around rare and extreme misconduct, the broader cultural and methodological problems remain unaddressed.
Cristea argued that this combination of silence and misdirection creates a chilling effect, discouraging researchers from raising legitimate concerns. This, in turn, allows flawed incentives, methodological weaknesses, and structural problems to persist unchecked.
Her conclusion was clear: the fight against bad science cannot be limited to condemning the most blatant violations. A culture is needed in which all forms of problematic research — from subtle biases to methodological shortcuts — can be openly discussed without fear of isolation or dismissal.
Bad science, she noted, does not always resemble outright fraud; sometimes, it is simply the silence that follows when no one speaks up.
Author: Assemgul Kozhabek