(Press-News.org) In 2012 Max Bazerman, along with four coauthors, published an influential paper showing that “signing first”—that is, promising to tell the truth before filling out a form—produced greater honesty than signing afterward. In 2021, academic sleuths revealed that two of the experiments in the paper were fraudulent, triggering what would become one of the most significant academic frauds of the twenty-first century.
In Inside an Academic Scandal, Bazerman tells the sobering story of how fraud in a published paper about inducing honesty upended countless academic careers, wreaked havoc in organizations that had implemented the idea of “signing first,” and undermined faith in academic research and publication.
This vivid account offers an inside look at the replicability crisis in social science today. In intriguing detail, the book explores recent conflicts and transformations underway in the field, considers the role of relationships and trust in enabling fraud in academic research, and describes Bazerman’s own part in the scandal—what he did and didn’t do to stop the fraud in the signing-first paper, what consequences he faced, and what hard lessons he learned in the process.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Max H. Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He is the author or co-author of fourteen books, including Complicit: How We Enable the Unethical and How to Stop. Max’s awards include an honorary doctorate from the University of London (London Business School), the Life Achievement Award from the Aspen Institute, and the Distinguished Scholar Award, the Distinguished Educator Award, and the Organizational Behavior Division’s Life Achievement Award from the Academy of Management. Max's consulting, teaching, and lecturing includes work in thirty-two countries.
ADVANCE PRAISE
“Bazerman's story is candid, personal, and captivating. It is rare to see such an unflinching and honest account of scientific misconduct from someone very close to the events. Bazerman also captures the turmoil and revolution that rocked psychology, including stories from the front lines.”
—Simine Vazire, Professor of Ethics and Wellbeing, University of Melbourne
“In this gripping, and at times autobiographical, quest for truth, Bazerman, a leading social scientist, reminds us that research integrity cannot be taken for granted but must be built into our practices and procedures.”
—Iris Bohnet, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School; co-author of Make Work Fair
“Riveting and powerful, Bazerman’s story reveals how easy it is to miss the signs of a colleague’s fraud. Packed with reflection and evidence-based suggestions for improving existing systems, Inside an Academic Scandal forces you to confront the uncomfortable reality that trust is not always warranted.”
—Katy Milkman, James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; author of How to Change
“It is rare to get a first-person account of the experience and aftermath of being associated with academic fraud. It is unheard of to get an account that is as transparent, reflective, and impactful as this book.”
—Brian Nosek, Executive Director, Center for Open Science, and Professor, University of Virginia
“A candid and deeply personal look at back-to-back research scandals that rocked academia. Max Bazerman courageously steps forward to provide both the insider’s investigation and expert’s perspective that only he can provide. The resulting reflection is timely and gripping.”
—Dolly Chugh, Professor, NYU Stern School of Business; author of The Person You Mean to Be and A More Just Future
“Bazerman gives a gripping account of how ignoring warning signs in a colleague's work led to his getting embroiled in a high-profile case of research misconduct. A must-read for all researchers interested in integrity issues.”
—Dorothy Bishop, Emeritus Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology, University of Oxford; co-author of Evaluating What Works
“When the inherent processes of scientific self-correction will not do the job, a courageous path to correction is called for: that of a scientist publicly calling out the corruption of peers, including beloved teachers and students. This rare correction is on full display here, and for Bazerman’s intrepid divulgence we must be collectively grateful.”
—Mahzarin Banaji, Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Harvard University; author of Blindspot
About the MIT Press
Established in 1962, the MIT Press is one of the largest and most distinguished university presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, art, social science, and design.
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