Scientific research constitutes a collective construction and relies on the faithful report of work by every member of the scientific community. Therefore it is essential that the whole scientific community, from researchers to editors and research institutions, engages collectively and openly in preserving and promoting scientific integrity.

Though codes of conduct and procedures to handle misconduct do exist, the occurrence of misconduct is significant (Martinson, 2006; Tavare, 2012). In addition, fraudulent publications still remain unnoticed or even cited, either when editors and research institutions do not take action or when scientists are not aware of the case (Sox, 2006; Marchant, 2011).

To address this issue, we have constituted a collaborative database of scientific publications for which research misconduct has been assessed, coupled to an online platform on which scientific integrity can be openly and constructively debated. Please note that this database

• focuses on the publications content, and not on their authors
• does not include publications containing honest errors.

As the issues addressed here are subtle, we recommend you to read the detailed statement of our approach.

A proof of principle, and some perspectives

This database constitutes a proof of principle for an open library of scientific misconduct. It has received verbal support from researchers and institutions [1-3], as well as legal support from the French authority responsible for online databases (CNIL). Since 2009, this project has not significantly impacted our community, mainly because institutions have not joined, dismissing the opportunity to upload all assessed misconducts in a public database.

We invite you to read more about the perspectives of this project: institutional and technical support are still needed, open and public actions are essential to break such a taboo issue, and as researchers, we pursue our engagement at a local scale, in discussions, lectures, events !

Want to get involved? Questions, suggestions, comments? Do not hesitate to contact us at contact@scientificredcards.org.

References
1. ESF Forum on scientific integrity
2. EASE conference on Misconduct in Science Communication.
3. Flutre et al, 2011, Nature)