When science does not improve human knowledge and progress: the STAP cells’ case

Abstract

Over the past decade, an increasing number of flaws and mistakes, more or less unintentionally made, were discovered in the biomedical literature. This can undermine the progress of the medical field by allowing the creation of fallacious, or not entirely correct, ideas that may affect not only the research field but, potentially, also the clinical one. In this context, an increasing criticism is targeting the major biomedical journals as well as the peer review process. The latter will almost certainly need to be modified and revised to ensure the integrity of the medical knowledge. Moreover, this topic has recently reached the public opinion thanks to an article deliberately altered and published in Nature; this allows analyzing the main weaknesses of the scientific publication process.