I do think that modern technology can revamp antiquated systems of peer review and appeals to authority with more robust and deterministic / objective measures of quality - an evolving consensus repository of the sum of human knowledge where each pull request is a debate, each experiment a commit to a branch that may become a new foundation or a footnote. Yet we still see fit to define knowledge as property, ownership as power, power as success. Fear of the impression of weakness, or the threat of starvation and poverty seems to override all other priorities and for the most part, we toe the line.
It is what it is I guess.
Write an article and send it to the papers?
This kind of thing needs to be shamed and punished. While I agree that the institutions can be expected to cover there ass, there must be a course of action.
Should we have that expectation? If a person does it we call it concealing evidence, intimidation, and perverting the course of justice. On the other hand, if they confess right away, we treat them leniently. Why should institutions differ?
Large systems are more than the sum of their parts, but not nearly as much as those parts want you to believe.
If not, what's the difference to any other organisation such as, in an absolute extreme form, an army or a "terror"group apart from the agenda.
Really curious, not trying to construct a strawman!
Yes, but the point being made is that in the case of organizations the whole doesn't necessarily have the properties of its constituent parts.
> If not, what's the difference to any other organisation such as, in an absolute extreme form, an army or a "terror"group apart from the agenda.
Not sure what you mean by this. Difference from what to any other organization and why that relevant?
You find immoral, illegal, etc. activity in institutions/organizations across a broad spectrum of areas.
This is because the "constituent parts" - members of the organization - are often just terrible human beings that hide behind the concept of an institution to shield themselves from the cognitive dissonance caused by their own unethical actions.
If an institution does something unethical it can always be traced to its employees.
As an example, all the researchers involved in promoting this fake health product ought to be fired and academically blackballed. It really is that simple. That's how we can deal with institutional rot.
Wait for one really good case and let the papers instead discuss how a century old institution collapsed.
Not that there's any way in our current culture to assemble a truly impartial reputation tracker, but surely we can do better than Yelp.
Um what? It's basic ethical behavior. What has the world come to that someone can defend unethical, unprincipled behavior of a educational institution because "preventing legal and financial liabilities is the #1 priority for institutions ...", with the implication that therefore unethical behavior should be expected?
Admitting your mistakes is a strength, not a weakness. We should not expect other's to self-censor their shortcomings because if we do, we live in a fake world already. I mean, it happens, but whatever happened to honesty, the greater good, long term goals? Your take short sighted, short term benefits which will bite them in the ass eventually in the long run (like a can of worms).
Going into hoops about some kind of alternative theory, which is tried to make sound plausible (but often seems like a bad joke, insulting to the victim as well) should be less honored than admitting to a crime, showing remorse, and demonstrating you learned from making your mistake.
Showing you admit your deed, showing remorse, and demonstrating you learned from your mistake is important for the victim (and/or their peers), as well as for society in general. We as society should reward such behavior, but indeed more often than not our legal systems fail here. However, at some point the evidence is so overwhelming that the theater as described is only harmful. How can we lower the incentive for such theater?
A) Why not?
B) If not, then you can and should expect the people within the institution to implicate it: Everything is a decision, even the decision not to make a decision. For them to not make the decision to become a whistleblower, is for them to make the decision not to become a whistleblower -- i.e, to condone research fraud. If you really, really want to insist that institutions can't be black-balled, then we'll just have to start black-balling the people within them. (If the world starts to do this diligently and systematically, I think you'll rather quickly see a lot of people denouncing this kind of shit at their institutions, probably just as swiftly followed by a developing consensus that maybe you should expect institutions to police themselves.)
The most entertainingly written such blog to my taste is Leonid Schneider's:
https://forbetterscience.com/author/leonidschneider/
Most university administrators can see avoiding coverage like this is a good thing:
https://forbetterscience.com/2020/06/04/michael-hottiger-of-...
Why does _this_ not pose a legal liability?
Institution should have nothing to fear if they've followed due process and shouldn't be in a position of being implicated in dodgy science to begin with!