Fabrication

Definition

Inventing data or results that were never actually collected, so the reported study never took place.

Related terms

Falsification: Manipulating research materials, equipment or processes, or changing or omitting data, so that the record no longer accurately reflects what happened.
HARKing: Hypothesising after the results are known: presenting a hypothesis formed after seeing the data as though it had been predicted in advance.
P-Hacking: Trying multiple analytic choices on the same dataset until one combination crosses a statistical significance threshold, then reporting only that combination as...
Plagiarism: Presenting another person's words, ideas, data or findings as one's own without adequate credit, including copying one's own previously published work without...
Retraction: A formal withdrawal of a published article by a journal or its authors, issued when the findings can no longer be trusted...
Pre-Registration: Filing a study's hypotheses, sample size and planned analysis in a public registry before collecting or examining outcome data.
Questionable Research Practices: Practices such as p-hacking, HARKing and salami slicing that distort what a study appears to show without meeting the FFP definition of...