Biologists Behaving Badly

Cambridge University biologist Peter Lawrence says that modern biology is being corrupted by attempts to measure and evaluate research. In Current Biology, he writes that the importance placed on impact factors and H-indices has increased unethical behavior among researchers as they jockey to get their names on a paper to increase their standing in the community. "To improve the standard of behaviour, I think we need a code of ethics as well as some means to enforce it, especially with regard to publication," suggests Lawrence. You can read his editorial here, via David Colquhoun's Goodscience blog.