Cheating in Management Science (with Comments

My interest in scientific cheating began years ago, when I was responsible for the marketing research on a government-sponsored research contract. The purpose of the project was to examine an approach to urban transportation, which I will call the Urban Transit Plan (UTP). The government supported this research because of the potential social benefits if commuters were to switch from their automobiles to the UTP. My initial studies showed that more commuters would switch to the UTP from the existing mass transit than would switch from automobiles. Thus, instead of producing social benefits, the UTP would increase social costs. So what happened? First, I was asked by the project leader to “check” my results. What 1 inferred from this request was that 1 should not report these results, but should do studies until I obtained the desired results. I commissioned additional independent studies, but these supported the initial findings. Subsequently, I learned from informal sources that my reports were “lost” when the project leader reported to the government agency. Despite my objections to the project leader, additional reports were also lost. Therefore, I took action to ensure that the government received the reports. My action led to “peer review” whereby the 15 members of the project team, mostly university faculty, were asked by the project leader whether I should be fired. Only two faculty members voted that I should not be fired; however, they look such a strong stand in my favor that 1 was allowed to remain.