Most medical researchers do not go into their chosen career for the money. They dream of putting the taxes or donations of ordinary Australians to good use progressing toward disease cures or improvements to public health. What happens when such good intentions are frustrated by bad actors lying about their work to win an unfair share of the scarce research funding available?
A case in point is that of prominent cancer researcher Mark Smyth, who made up data to boost his career. Ultimately Smyth’s employer, the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, returned a reported $3.4 million in funding to the National Health and Medical Research Council. While it is great that this money was recovered, the anonymous whistleblowers of Smyth’s misconduct did not see a penny of it. Instead, they faced a bullying campaign and lost their jobs; punishment enough for the would-be whistleblowers of other cases of fraud to take the cynical but rational decision not to speak up.
Maybe Australia could learn something from the United States, where there is more comfort with the idea of financial compensation for whistleblowers who take personal risks to do the right thing.
Probably the most potent avenue for tackling scientific fraud in the US is the US Federal False Claims Act. Under a clause in the law called the “qui tam” provision, whistleblowers of fraud using research grants or other public sources of money stand to earn a reward of up to 10% to 30% of the eventual money returned in...
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