Bad science and its spread

Thursday 12 February 2026, 14:30-15:30, Open Science Café with Alberto Baccini and Paola Galimberti

Agenda

14:30 – 14:40 Connection opens and welcome remarks by Paola Galimberti
14:40 - 15:00 Presentation by Alberto Baccini
15:00 – 15:30 Q&A and discussion

Summary

What drives scientists to engage in misconduct? Why do they commit fraud in their scientific work? Does the administrative evaluation of research act as an incentive or a deterrent to wrongdoing? This presentation is split into two parts. The first part will present available estimates on how widespread bad science actually is. The second part will analyse the Italian case to reflect on the phenomenon of "academic doping".

Speakers

Paola Galimberti (moderator): Head of Open Science Policy Support at the University of Milan, including the University Press. She is a DOAJ editor for Italy and Germany, and a member of the Operas scientific advisory committee. She has been working on scholarly communication and its costs for many years.

Alberto Baccini (speaker): Full Professor of Political Economy at the University of Siena. He has been working on bibliometrics, scientometrics, and research evaluation for many years. He is one of the founders and editors of the blog www.roars.it.

Target audience

This webinar is created for the Italian community and is aimed at researchers, research support staff, technicians, and technologists interested in learning more about Open Science and FAIR principles.

Video