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Data sleuths who spotted research misconduct cleared of defamation

arstechnica.com

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Re: Data sleuths who spotted research misconduct cleared of defamation

#51

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

apwheele wrote: post #13

While a favorable ruling for the Data Colada defendants seemed incredibly likely in the end (and of course being dismissed pre-trial before discovery is a good thing). But it still took over a year, and consisted of several pre-trial hearings with multiple back and forths between them. If I ctrl-f https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.259... I see Pyle (their lawyer) listed 11 times. All the motion…

> Or am I overestimating.

Ahh, sweet summer child who has never seen these kind of legal fees.

I do hope Gino gets socked with their legal fees.

Re: Data sleuths who spotted research misconduct cleared of defamation

#52

Post by yial »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #22
teractiveodular wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure this guy wouldn't get out of bed for $10k: https://princelobel.com/professional/jeffrey-j-pyle/ Although given that the New Yorker stated that Pyle "appeared not only professionally but personally incensed by the fact of the lawsuit", perhaps some of the work was pro bono. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-a-scientific-di...

Thankfully, a lot of the filings appear short enough that I doubt he's going to charge very much. I assume the retainer was still $20-30k, but they may get some of it back. I was hoping that there would be some fee-shifting here, but it's federal court.

I would guess a 20-30k retainer in this occurrence would be a discounted retainer as well. I say this just based upon my personal experience with a few smaller firms.

Re: Data sleuths who spotted research misconduct cleared of defamation

#53

Post by yial »

tothrowaway wrote: post #40
aheilbut wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are underestimating...

I would agree. I'm the defendant in a (frivolous) trademark infringement case and my firm (which does work for the EFF) averages about 2 hours per (substantial) page, at a rate of $500/hour. I do wonder in the back of my mind if I'm being taken to the cleaners...

I have a limited experience, only having been involved in one trademark case professionally and am not a lawyer, but this was a case that very quickly settled and fees were still close to $30,000.

Re: Data sleuths who spotted research misconduct cleared of defamation

#54

Post by hilux »

hughesjj wrote: post #39
RachelF wrote: post #31

The irony is that Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely are famous for their pop-sci/TED talks studying dishonesty. Turns out they were dishonest themselves. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190568472/dan-ariely-frances...

I'm at the point where if I see it in a TED talk I'm assuming it's a bullshit grifter

Me too. Same for pretty much any "scientist" on NPR, or with a popular book. Not EVERY one is a hack or a fraud, but enough are that as a group, they're not trustworthy.

That's a big chunk of my adult life I need to forget, because I was so into the broad field of applied social science, Ariely in particular. It's a real shame.

Re: Data sleuths who spotted research misconduct cleared of defamation

#55

Post by zo1 »

hughesjj wrote: post #39
RachelF wrote: post #31

The irony is that Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely are famous for their pop-sci/TED talks studying dishonesty. Turns out they were dishonest themselves. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190568472/dan-ariely-frances...

I'm at the point where if I see it in a TED talk I'm assuming it's a bullshit grifter

I blocked the TED channel on YouTube a few years back as it was getting bad. They first diluted their "brand" or quality with TEDx, and it's been downhill since as they've been scraping the bottom of the barrel and tried to "scale" or "franchise". Happens everytime, growth at all costs. The only way to stop it is to have passionate leaders who care more about the goal than the money.

Unfortunately, usually by the time these leaders have established their company they are also on a downward life trajectory in terms of years left, so they switch to "extraction" mode.

Re: Data sleuths who spotted research misconduct cleared of defamation

#58

Post by protomolecule »

hughesjj wrote: post #39
RachelF wrote: post #31

The irony is that Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely are famous for their pop-sci/TED talks studying dishonesty. Turns out they were dishonest themselves. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190568472/dan-ariely-frances...

I'm at the point where if I see it in a TED talk I'm assuming it's a bullshit grifter

Even if it is a Nobel prize winner like Jennifer Doudna?

Re: Data sleuths who spotted research misconduct cleared of defamation

#59

Post by guappa »

protomolecule wrote: post #58
hughesjj wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm at the point where if I see it in a TED talk I'm assuming it's a bullshit grifter

Even if it is a Nobel prize winner like Jennifer Doudna?

Well the guy who invented lobotomy got one of those. Or the guy who invented microcredit. To not even venture in the peace nobel prizes area, where getting one is probably indicative of being evil.

Re: Data sleuths who spotted research misconduct cleared of defamation

#60

Post by rebanevapustus »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #12
smcin wrote: post #6

[tl;dr] US District Court dismisses Francesca Gino's controversial $25m defamation lawsuit against Harvard Business School and DataColada scientist-bloggers (Simonsohn, Nelson, and Simmons). The judge allowed Gino's breach of contract claim against Harvard to continue. DataColada's legal defense (so far) was paid for by their own universities; there is also a $378K private GoFundMe organized by Simine Vazire [ https:…

Do universities typically go to bat for their faculty? Presumably the blog investigation is not done with any direct university involvement.

I was the victim of a pretty bizarre super in-your-face academic theft. Someone snooped a half-finished draft of mine off GitHub and...actually got it published in a real journal.

https://forbetterscience.com/2023/10/30/stephensons-alternat...

My institution completely brushed it off as a no problem, and said that it wasn't worth pursuing it at all.

It was very traumatising (and still is). I lost all faith in academia.

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