Science, a large science journal established in 1880, was recently forced to retract a gay marriage study. The research was based on research data that was almost entirely fake.
The study examined whether people's views about same-sex marriages changed based on their interaction with gay individuals, according to The Daily Caller.
Michael LaCour works at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) as a political science researcher. He submitted a research paper on gay marriage that caused great excitement in the scientific community. Donald P. Green, a Columbia professor, helped LaCour with his study.
The public response was not surprising since the gay marriage debate is a hot-button issue. However, when graduate students at the University of California-Berkley started a follow-up study, they found several data consistency problems in LaCour's research.
David Brockman, a future professor at Stanford University, tested LaCour's scientific method on the issue of transgender equality in Florida, according to ZME Science. LaCour's fake data and bad science gradually became obvious.
Brockman's team reported several irregularities in the study performed by LaCour and Green in their 2014 study. The fake science included "baseline outcome data" that was almost the same as research data in a national survey, and the data set that was not in common patterns in "randomized experiments."
In addition, the science world generally considers Green as an innovator in field experiments. While LaCour first told Green that he had received $300,000 in grant money, he is now claiming that the study's participants only had the chance to win a tablet computer.
LaCour's research created many question marks in the minds of other researchers who tried to duplicate his method. They discovered that the survey company that LaCour claimed he had teamed up with, had no records of him.
Another issue is that LaCour never released his study's raw data. The science researcher claimed that he had to destroy the sensitive data, even though Green suggested that it be stored in a university databank.
When the fake study started to make headline news, Green asked LaCour to retract it. He said that the research paper will create a permanent "black cloud" over his head.