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'The Dark side of Science: Misconduct in Biomedical Research.' Lecture by dr. Elisabeth Bik

On October 13 (15:30-17:30 CET) Elisabeth Bik will give a lecture in Amsterdam, explaining her work as an 'image forensics detective' searching and reporting biomedical articles that contain errors or data of concern. During the last years Elisabeth has done a systematic scan of 20,000 papers in 40 journals and found that about 4% of these contained inappropriately duplicated images. In her talk she will present her work and show several types of inappropriately duplicated images and other examples of research misconduct. In addition, she will show how to report scientific papers of concern, and how journals and institutions handle such allegations. 

Elisabeth Bik, PhD, is a science integrity consultant who specializes in finding image duplications in scientific papers. After receiving her PhD in Microbiology at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, she worked 15 years at the Stanford University School of Medicine on the microbiomes of humans and marine mammals. From 2016-2019, she worked at two microbiome startup companies. In March 2019, she left her job to become a science integrity volunteer and occasional consultant. She has reported over 4,000 papers for issues with image duplication or other concerns. In April 2021 she was awarded the Peter Wildy Prize by the UK Microbiology Society for her contributions in science communication.

The lecture will be organized by NRIN. We aim to make it possible to attend the lecture on location and watch the live-stream. Register here.