Pine tar has been in the news recently - at least for those who follow baseball. Pine tar is pretty much what it sounds like. It is a sticky substance created by heating pine roots and related wood fragments at a high temperature until much of the organic material has been reduced to a host of dark, odorous compounds. Some of these molecules are even carcinogenic. Pine tar has a long history of use as a sealant for wood, in roofing materials and even soaps for the treatment of eczema, psoriasis and other skin disorders. Efficacy varies.
The news is that a major league pitcher, Michael Pineda of the New York Yankees, was ejected in a recent game and suspended for ten more contests for using pine tar on the ball. This is expressly banned as it gives an advantage for pitchers although use is allowed to help the batters make a better grip on their bats – in part, a safety measure. The rich history of the use of pine tar by pitchers goes back many decades and it is widely believed that cheating takes place regularly to the present time. In this particular situation, Pineda placed an obvious strip of the material on his neck and was regularly stroking the deposit to retrieve the substance to improve his grip on the ball, of particular help in cold weather. Most pitchers are far more devious as to how the apply the illegal material.
This rule-breaking incident made big headlines and in some ways mirrors recent attention about a different form of cheating - in this case associated with scientific research. Most scientists do not believe much fraud actually takes place in research but there is no question that some does. What captured attention recently was the work of a science journalist at Harvard, John Bohannon, who set up a “sting” operation designed to reveal the increasing fraudulent tactics of online journals accepting just about any publication that is sent to them.
Some of these kinds of journals are taking advantage of the highly competitive academic environment where numbers of publications often count more for advancement than do solid results. Bohannon literally invented a paper by taking complicated “scientific” phrases from completely different domains and combined them in a document he called the “wonder drug paper” and submitted this bizarre article to 304 open access journals worldwide over nearly a year. Over 150 of the journals were willing to publish the work. Of 106 journals that actually conducted peer review on the submission, 70% accepted the article.
This highly publicized story is in some ways parallel to the relatively harmless case of the use of pine tar in baseball. What is clear about the baseball situation is that cheating was going on behind the scenes but when it was so clearly revealed by Pineda, the media focused its attention. The same is true on the much more serious consideration of cheating in science.
It should not be construed that fraud in science is as rampant as in the use of pine tar by pitchers but it seems to be noticed by the media as a serious situation only when a great deal of effort was expended by a savvy journalist to expose “for-profit” journals. Kudos to Bohannon and we hope the media will wake up and condemn their fellow “journalists” who are endorsing bogus articles that are beginning to poison the scientific literature. There are many examples.
