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Danish Committee Closes Controversial Case

A controversial research misconduct case in Denmark was closed last March when the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DCSD) decided not to resume its investigation against a social scientist after its original finding was overturned by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MSTI), according to a report on the DCSD web site.

The case involved the publication of The Skeptical Environmentalist written by Bjorn Lomborg and published by the Cambridge University Press in 2001. In January 2003, the DCSD decided that “the book was based on a systematically biased choice of data” and the author “had clearly acted contrary to good scientific practice.”

In December 2003, the MSTI invalidated the finding because the DCSD has no mandate to rule on the failure to follow good scientific practice, did not provide adequate documentation to substantiate its ruling or its jurisdiction, may not have had the competence to investigate the complaint, may have inappropriately applied health science standards to the social sciences, publicly disclosed its finding before receiving comment from the respondent and other procedural errors. The MSTI did not evaluate the book for scientific merit.

The director of the Danish Research Agency established a Working Group on Scientific Dishonesty in January 2003 to evaluate the need to adjust the regulatory basis of the DCSD. Its report is pending.