Elisabeth Bik, PhD, is a science integrity consultant who specializes in finding image duplications in scientific papers. After receiving her PhD in Microbiology at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, she worked 15 years at the Stanford University School of Medicine on the microbiomes of humans and marine mammals. From 2016-2019, she worked at two microbiome startup companies. In March 2019, she left her job to become a science integrity volunteer and occasional consultant. She can often be found discussing science papers on Twitter at @MicrobiomDigest, writing for her blog ScienceIntegrityDigest or searching the biomedical literature for inappropriately duplicated or manipulated photographic images and plagiarized text. She has reported over 4,000 papers for issues with image duplication or other concerns. Her work has been featured in Nature, Science, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Le Monde, and The Times (UK). In April 2021 she was awarded the Peter Wildy Prize by the UK Microbiology Society for her contributions in science communication.

Twitter: @MicrobiomDigest

New Yorker Article - https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/how-a-sharp-eyed-scientist-became-biologys-image-detective

Favorite Study - "Host lifestyle affects human microbiota on daily timescales" by Lawrence David - https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/gb-2014-15-7-r89.pdf

If you would like to support Dr. Bik's work, consider becoming a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/elisabethbik

Timestamps:
00:51 - Biology's image detective
01:59 - The scope of fraud in science
03:37 - What is motivating scientists to commit fraud?
04:46 - Dr. Bik's early work with plagiarism 
08:54 - Incentive structures that lead to fraud in science
12:09 - Peer review and the role of editors at science journals/newspapers
14:44 - How can we change the system?
16:07 - How can non-PhD's approach reading scientific papers?
18:27 - Are pre-publication sites good for science?
21:14 - Hydroxychloroquine
24:49 - Ongoing cases against Dr. Bik
30:12 - Public perception of scientific integrity
35:24 - Algorithmic fraud detector
38:43 - Dr. Bik's ultimate mission 
40:40 - Dr. Bik's favorite paper

Hosts:
Vasanth Thiruvadi - @NextVasanth
Faraz Abidi - @fzfromcupertino

Intro Music: "Pain is the Essence" remix by @AdiSoundsGood on Twitter