(Fibonacci Blue Wikimedia CC)
I posted an item yesterday about a remarkable case of academic fraud in the medical sciences.
As you might imagine, the temptation to falsify results can also be quite powerful in the social sciences, and especially when the subject involved is one on which there are passionate disagreements.
Well, here’s an apparently quite clear example:
It’s instructive.
It says something about possible ideological biases in research, publication, and the peer-review process.
Anecdotally, I’ve heard plenty of comments and stories suggesting that, right now, it may be extraordinarily difficult — to the point of near-impossibility — to do or publish balanced social-science and other research on topics related to gay parenting and same-sex “marriage.” One’s career could be destroyed if one reaches the “wrong” conclusions, but the “right” conclusions will tend to be welcomed whether the data supporting them are accurate and the methodology rigorous or not.
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