About Science Detective

Science Detective is an initiative dedicated to purging fabricated data from the scientific literature. The project is backed by a $50,000 grant from Astral Codex Ten.

We're building custom software that identifies impossible data in Excel spreadsheets available in open repositories such as Dryad. Now we’re in the process of ramping up towards the goal of scanning through all scientific papers with open-access data available.

Contact

Email: markus@sciencedetective.org

Cases

List of all reported issues on Pubpeer:

  • Gut Microbiota Regulate Motor Deficits and Neuroinflammation in a Model of Parkinson’s Disease. Cell (2016) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Behavioural individuality in clonal fish arises despite near-identical rearing conditions. Nature Communications (2017) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Constraints on the evolution of toxin-resistant Na,K-ATPases have limited dependence on sequence divergence. PLOS Genetics (2022) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Long-term soil warming decreases microbial phosphorus utilization by increasing abiotic phosphorus sorption and phosphorus losses. Nature Communications (2023) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Impact of short‐ and long‐duration thermal stress on antioxidant enzyme activity in Parthenium beetles. Physiological Entomology (2024) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Extreme Warming Coordinately Shifts Root and Leaf Traits of Alpine Plants toward Conservatism. Ecosystem Health and Sustainability (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection. Nature Communications (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Cystic fibrosis alters the structure of the olfactory epithelium and the expression of olfactory receptors affecting odor perception. Science Advances (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Dual drivers of plant invasions: Enemy release and enhanced mutualisms. Journal of Ecology (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Drought decreases carbon flux but not transport speed of newly fixed carbon from leaves to sinks in a giant bamboo forest. Journal of Ecology (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Allometric equations quantify accelerated growth and carbon fixation in trees of northeastern north America. Forest Ecosystems (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Interspecific differences in nitrogen form acquisition strategies contribute to species dominance. Ecology (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Nitrogen and phosphorus enrichment differentially affect grassland ecosystem functioning via multitrophic pathways. Journal of Ecology (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Breath-Focused Mindfulness and Compassion Training in Parent-Child Dyads: Pilot Intervention Study. JMIR Formative Research (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article
  • Natural selection, rather than sexual selection, plays a dominant role in the formation of body coloration in Drosophila suzukii. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2025) - Pubpeer comment | Article