Version 1
: Received: 7 June 2023 / Approved: 8 June 2023 / Online: 8 June 2023 (07:42:55 CEST)
How to cite:
Schumm, W.R. Assessing Last Decimal Digits in Retracted Research Articles: Accounting for Missing Zeroes. Preprints2023, 2023060603. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202306.0603.v1
Schumm, W.R. Assessing Last Decimal Digits in Retracted Research Articles: Accounting for Missing Zeroes. Preprints 2023, 2023060603. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202306.0603.v1
Schumm, W.R. Assessing Last Decimal Digits in Retracted Research Articles: Accounting for Missing Zeroes. Preprints2023, 2023060603. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202306.0603.v1
APA Style
Schumm, W.R. (2023). Assessing Last Decimal Digits in Retracted Research Articles: Accounting for Missing Zeroes. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202306.0603.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Schumm, W.R. 2023 "Assessing Last Decimal Digits in Retracted Research Articles: Accounting for Missing Zeroes" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202306.0603.v1
Abstract
The cumulative nature of knowledge in science in general and for social science in particular
depends on research being conducted with integrity, with fraudulent research being one of the most
harmful of questionable research practices. It has been observed that, in fabricated research, there is
often a deficit of zeroes in the last digits of regression results. In research, authored by Dr. Eric A.
Stewart, that has been retracted, there appears to have been a paucity of zeroes as last digits in his
regression results. Eight hypotheses were tested to re-examine the relative lack of zeroes and possible
increases in ones or nines as last digits. Some support was found for all hypotheses. It appears that in
Stewart’s retracted research, ones and nines were substituted for zeroes as last digits. Furthermore, the
increased proportions of ones and nines was found to be highly correlated with other anomalies in the
same retracted articles, possibly indicative of fabrication of the results in the retracted articles. Further
research in this area might use symbolic interaction theory or justification theory to guide our
developing knowledge about this type of questionable research practice.
Keywords
Scientific misconduct; fraud; regression digits; zeroes; Eric Stewart; fabrication of results
Subject
Social Sciences, Sociology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
