Checking out what good science really means is usually a serious and revealing business (sometimes a distressing one), but then there’s this from Retraction Watch:
Microchimica Acta has retracted a paper about water-soluble quantum dots after the authors couldn’t provide back-up for a figure that contained signs of manipulation. The reason, the editor told us: The corresponding author said the raw data were lost in a flood in Sri Lanka.
…
The paper has been cited 19 times, according to Thomson Reuters Web of Science.
As the goldfish said, Glub glub glub
We’ve seen a similar explanation for lost data before — see Lost your data? Blame an earthquake. More.
Come on now, people. These explanations have way more cachet than “The dog ate my homework”!
And it’s not as though the cloud or .pdf have been invented yet.
See also: Replication crisis: Neuroskeptic on foxes guarding the henhouse
and
Replication as key science reform?
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Chill, then start day.