Men Are More Likely Than Women to Engage in Science Fraud

Male scientists are more likely than their female counterparts to engage in research fraud, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal mBio. The study analyzed a large database of cases of scientific fraud, categorized those who committed the fraud by different stages of careers and then compared those at different stages of their careers (from junior levels to senior scientists) to the gender make-up of the fields. While there are more males than females in all of the groups, the proportion of fraud by men was greater than the male representation among scientists at all the different levels.