Interesting comment to a Scientist piece about plagiarism -- possible motivation behind falsifying data

The journals must accept some responsibility
by anonymous poster[Comment posted 2010-04-29 11:45:15]
Once upon a time, it was considered perfectly normal to publish warts and all. Graphs were prepared with Letraset with axes and lines that were never quite straight, gels and blots often contained ugly streaks, the odd animal did not respond as expected, clear trends did not achieve statistical significance, negative results were still considered to be of interest, etc. Over the years journals have allowed reviewers to be more and more petty about these issues. Consequently, young scientists have been led to believe that studies must be picture perfect before they can be published. Given the severe competition they face, it is not too surprising that they feel compelled to launder their work to make it look squeaky clean. There are plenty of excellent papers in the older literature (pre-1970s) that simply would not stand a chance of being published today, because of spurious standards of excellence.

Read more: PhD student admits misconduct - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57297/#ixzz0pAYtnmpi