The persistence of fraud in the literature: The Darsee case

The incidence of fraud, or scientific misconduct, has been much publicized of late. While not new, the case of John Darsee has played an important part in the literature of biomedical research for a number of years. Darsee was discovered to have fabricated the data which formed the bases for many articles and abstracts he published through 1981. The present study shows that, although a considerable amount of time has passed and some of his papers have been retracted, Darsee's work continues to be cited, and cited positively, in the literature on cardiology through 1990. The implications of this phenomenon are discussed.