Academic research in the 21st century: Maintaining scientific integrity in a climate of perverse incentives and hypercompetition

In recent years it has become clear that misconduct in the scientific community is pervasive. In this recent publication by Edwards et al., the authors investigate the potential causes of this problem. Their conclusion is that due to decreased research funding from governments, development of quantitative metrics for research output, and a changing business model for higher education, a climate of hypercompetition is created. As a result, to survive in the modern science community, more and more scientist compromise on their scientific integrity to stay ahead of the competition. (Summary by Harrie van Erp). Env. Eng. Sci. 10.1089/ees.2016.0223