In what ways can GitHub (or comprable cloud-based, version controlled, collaborative environments) help address the issues which the questions raise?
Question 1: How do you think LaCour was able to publish falsified data in such a prestigious journal as Science?
Two large issues with LaCour’s falsified data were that it seemed reliable and that it was done alone. LaCour made his research look good by saying his project was being funded by certain foundations. That lie along with his “credible mentor” may have made Science assume that the work was legitimate. LaCour also conducted most of the research by himself, which allowed him to do what he did. Github would have allowed LaCour the option to collaborate with others in a way that everyone could see who is contributing what to the research. It wouldn’t have been as simple for LaCour to falsify his data if there were others that could question how it was obtained.
Question 9: This case features a long-distance collaboration between a faculty member and a graduate student. What issues does the case raise about collaborating with others?
The main problem with this collaboration was that the mentor and mentee were on opposite coasts of the country. This essentially left LaCour alone to conduct the research without his mentor. Had LaCour and Green collaborated on something like Github it would have made it much harder for LaCour to falsify his data without his mentor knowing. Having more eyes on research usually only helps to prevent corrupted information.
Question 10: What are some of the consequences of LaCour’s behavior? For Broockman and Kalla? For Green? For other researchers in this field? For UCLA? For activists?
When I answered this question last week I said “Before any work is published it should be thoroughly checked to make sure the data is credible. False data can have many negative impacts in the scientific community as was shown in LaCour’s case.” One way to have work thoroughly checked is to have a large number of people look at it. Github can allow a multitude of people to analyze research and make suggestions or comments. If 30 people were to look into LaCour’s work before it got published it could have saved him a lot of embarrassment.
Question 12: What are the responsibilities of individuals who co-author papers? What can or should a student (graduate or undergraduate) do when co-author is suspected of falsifying data?
In order to be considered a co-author a person should contribute to the research and should be held responsible for everything the paper says. Green should not have been considered a co-author considering how little he did to contribute to the research and how poor of a job he did mentoring his graduate student. Had the two used Github or a similar collaborative site then Green could have monitored LaCour’s work and prevented the falsifying of data. Github could allow people from across the globe to conduct and contribute to one research project, and it could have helped LaCour and Green as well.
####In addition, please respond to the following:
If you were asked to consult for a research project, how would you recommend the integration of GitHub into the workflow? Assume your collaborators have never used GitHub before. Be sure to also explain briefly how it works so they can understand.
I would explain how Github allows everyone to collaborate on a project while keeping track of who makes changes to the paper, poster, or document regarding the research. One person could create a repository,or repo, and others could fork it to make changes to the document. Once a person has forked a repo they can alter it on their computer and make a pull request to the person that owns the repo. The pull request is a request to “pull” the changes into the main document and merge them. The owner of the repo can accept the pull request or reject it and provide instructions as to what needs to be changed. This allows many people to work on a project at once and keep track of who is making what changes. I would recommend that every person creates a Github account and begins keeping track of their research on it. This allows others to see and share the progress of the reasearch.