ABSTRACT
Cases of scholarly crime continue to make the news, despite the emphasis placed on responsible conduct of research (RCR) training and efforts to pursue alleged cases of misconduct. The limited success of preventive and control efforts to date suggest that it may be time to try different approaches. One such approach is to criminally prosecute cases of serious misconduct such as fabrication, falsification and plagiarism since these forms of fraud parallel more traditional forms of white-collar offenses. There will be some net-widening, but the gains in justice should outweigh the inconvenience and cost of a relatively small number of scholarly crime prosecutions. Because efforts of the past such as RCR education do not seem to have curbed serious misconduct, the authors call for novel approaches to prevention. One of these, prosocial gossip, may result in embarrassment, which is a significant controlling force in academia. Once exposed through gossip, recalcitrant scholarly offenders may find themselves excluded and isolated from their scientific disciplines.
