The Need for Research Detectives in the Face of Rising Scientific Fraud.

Fraud in science is becoming increasingly common, and automated screening tools are not enough to tackle it. While they have been successful in detecting faulty experiments and plagiarism, they can be easily fooled by fraudsters. The solution is to employ more people to check the quality of research, such as the Dutch microbiologist Elisabeth Bik, who has caught multiple fraudsters. Quality control systems need not be expensive, and random spot checks could be effective. Institutions and funders should be notified of any wrongdoing, and there should be consequences for repeat offenders.