They arrived in Paris from New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Germany, Switzerland and Mallorca. They are the members of the self-baptized “Invisible College”, a group of scientific experts in the style of The Avengers or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen destined to fight against Evil. Here it is not about saving the planet, but rather “decontaminate scientific literature”as indicated by the title of its symposium, which was held behind closed doors from September 17 to 19.
It is the first time that these forty scientific “detectives” have met, who pursue violations of the integrity of certain scientific articles and who have to their credit the retractions of thousands of texts for these reasons. Objective: to consolidate their actions, until now often individually or in small groups created for the occasion. “Seeing yourself physically creates something stronger”testifies Cyril Labbé, professor at the University of Grenoble Alpes, one of the co-organizers of this atypical meeting and member of the European NanoBubbles project, which studies the “self-correction of science.”
The program also began with very brief individual presentations, just to confirm the variety of profiles. Most of them, university students or retirees, only dedicate part of their time to it. Others are full-time, like Guillaume Cabanac, professor at the University Toulouse-III-Paul-Sabatier and one of the organizers of this conference. In particular, he holds a chair at the French University Institute, which co-finances the event, on the topic of decontamination of science. He is also a member of NanoBubbles, which funded the symposium.
The specialties of these hounds are also diverse. Elisabeth Bik has a good eye for detecting duplicate images, Jennifer Byrne tracks down fake genetic sequences or cell lines, Smut Clyde is skilled at throwing balls of thread to dig up paper mills (companies that produce fake articles in abundance), Lonni Besançon delves into the ethical weaknesses of Didier Raoult’s articles, Nick Brown shudders at the slightest statistical error…
“Retreat wagons”
“There are moments when it is funny, the frauds are so poorly done”one of them tells us. But their activity does not always invite laughter. Of some fifteen researchers interviewed by the worldtwo thirds claim to have received insults and a quarter more formal complaints. But everyone wants to continue. “One of the objectives [de notre action] It is also about supporting each other, so we are not alone. Create a community »estimates Guillaume Cabanac.
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