The Ethics of Publishing Biomedical and Natural Products Research

Abstract

Given that the essence of Science is a search for the truth, one might expect that those identifying as scientists would be conscientious and observant of the demands this places on them. However, that expectation is not fulfilled universally as, not too surprisingly, egregious examples of unethical behavior appear and are driven by money, personal ambition, performance pressure, and other incentives. The reproducibility-, fact-, and truth-oriented modus operandi of Science has come to face a variety of challenges. Organized into 11 cases, this article outlines examples of compromised integrity from borderline to blatant unethical behavior that disgrace our profession unnecessarily. Considering technological developments in neural networks/artificial intelligence, a host of factors are identified as impacting Good Ethical Practices. The goal is manifold: to raise awareness and offer perspectives for refocusing on Science and true scientific evidence; to trigger discussion and developments that strengthen ethical behavior; to foster the recognition of the beauty, simplicity, and rewarding nature of scientific integrity; and to highlight the originality of intelligence.

On the origins of SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors

“…The list of chemicals described above is only representing a portion of all the compounds which have been evaluated around the world on many types of assays targeting SARS-CoV-2 M pro . In spite of belief-based treatments (using natural or human-made compounds) which unfortunately mobilized a lot of money and claimed an unacceptable number of lives 150 and in spite of far too many unexploitable 71 computer-involving reports (and patents) which also attracted much funding and raises acute questions on some authors, reviewers (if any), editors and publishers' integrity, 79 some approaches did deliver useful drugs. If drug repurposing was, as for the previous coronavirus epidemics, an unmitigated and unfortunately predictable failure, 151,152,411,412 past research results on various proteases as well as renewed screenings turned out to be successful starting points.…”

“…2–4,6,17,18,47–70 In the present text, the many publications 26 solely based on in silico docking approaches 71,72 and/or on traditional/ancestral medicine beliefs which only described frequent hitters/pan-assay interference compounds (PAINS) 73–77 were ignored. This choice is a bid to discourage such all too obvious pollution of the scientific literature, 78,79 not to mention the issue of lack of reproducibility of some data from the academia. 80 Aside from these, quite a few virtual-based reports describe modest inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 M pro by not too obvious frequent hitters which could lead to original series of inhibitors.…”