Integrity Matters. or, "Data Set, Data Set..."

"Who's Got the Data Set?"

The New York Times offers a fine follow-up on the good-looking California junior scientist who apparently faked his test results, and has gone underground rather than producing the data base of people he claims were surveyed in his amazingly persuasive award-winning social science study undertaken with a New York professor.

The scientific community’s system for vetting new findings, built on trust, is poorly equipped to detect deliberate misrepresentations. Faculty advisers monitor students’ work, but there are no standard guidelines governing the working relationship between senior and junior co-authors.

The reviewers at journals may raise questions about a study’s methodology or data analysis, but rarely have access to the raw data itself, experts said.
...

“It is simply unacceptable for science to continue with people publishing on data they do not share with others,” said Uri Simonsohn, an associate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“Journals, funding agencies and universities must begin requiring that data be publicly available.”

This is cheating the system just the same as Tom Brady was undermining the game of football when the pigskins were being deflated in his name...

Cheating isn't cool.
We need an attitude adjustment in this country that recognizes this, before all foundations of trust are undermined and all results are questioned in a society of ignorant skeptics.  (We're not there yet.)

And that's not a society to shoot for, is it?