You are invited to the kickoff of the 2025-26 Career Development Seminar Series, sponsored by Jay Piccirillo, MD, FACS and the TL1 program. Elisabeth Bik, PhD, Science Consultant from Harbers Bik LLC, will give a compelling lecture titled “Errors and Misconduct in Biomedical Research.”
Lecture Abstract
Science builds upon science. Even after peer-review and publication, science papers could still contain images or other data of concern. If not addressed post-publication, papers containing incorrect or even falsified data could lead to wasted time and money spent by other researchers trying to reproduce those results. Elisabeth Bik is an image forensics detective who left her paid job in industry to search for and report biomedical articles that contain errors or data of concern. She has done a systematic scan of 20,000 papers in 40 journals and found that about 4% of these contained inappropriately duplicated images. In her talk, she will present several types of inappropriately duplicated images, how to report such problems and how journals and institutions handle such allegations. Finally, she will address the growing problems of ‘paper mills’, for-profit networks that produce and sell large amounts of low-quality or fake papers, often with the use of artificial intelligence.
About the Career Development Seminar Series
The Career Development Seminar Series is open to residents, fellows and junior faculty enrolled in CRTC training programs, and the broader WashU community. The series offers periodic workshops and presentations open to all trainees, faculty and staff on professional development, best practices, resources and guidelines pertaining to research.
Responsible Conduct of Research Training
This seminar counts towards Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) credit. For those interested in receiving a RCR Documentation letter to complete, email marykatherine@wustl.edu or adisakalkan@wustl.edu.
Lunch will be provided.
Registration is required.
For more information, please see the event flyer.
Questions?
Please contact Mary Katherine Townsend at marykatherine@wustl.edu