How do scientific research articles get published? How do we know their results aren’t faked? What exactly are scientific journals and how do researchers get revenue from publishing their research work?
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Generally they’re published in journals with a peer-review process. Typically when you submit an article to a journal they’ll give it a look over to make sure it fits the scope of the journal and if it does they’ll send it out to some other academic in the field to check the methodology, literature review, analysis, writing etc.. The reviewers don’t get paid, it’s part of the ‘service’ obligation that’s part of most academic jobs. There’s always the risk a reviewer will do a half-arsed job, but there will be at least one other reviewer, so if you do that there’s a good chance you’ll get found out and do damage to your reputation.
The reviewers usually don’t check that the data is real because they don’t have access to the necessary information. It’s up to universities/research institutions to ensure academic integrity in relation to the falsification of data. At that level there *are* people who can check up and usually there’s more than one person involved in the research project. Anyone caught falsifying data’s reputation will be ruined, they’ll certainly be fired and probably be unable to find work in the field again. Sometimes it happens, but generally there is very little motivation to falsify data and doing so involves taking a career-ending risk.
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