British Medical JournalThe Scandal of Poor Medical Research

Most people would agree that a doctor’s behavior is unprofessional, arguably unethical, and certainly unacceptable when he or she uses the wrong treatment, whether willfully or through ignorance, or when they use the right treatment incorrectly. What, then, should we think about researchers who use the wrong techniques, use the right techniques wrongly, misinterpret their results, report their results selectively, cite the literature selectively, and draw unjustified conclusions?