After an award-winning Harvard Business School professor spent years exploring why people lie and cheat, three scientists — including a Wharton professor — concluded her findings were drawn from false data, writes Nidhi Subbaraman for The Wall Street Journal.

Joe Simmons, a professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the trio of scientists.

He works with the other two scientists and reports their work on a blog called Data Colada.

Simmons is part of a growing group of scientists who work as “data detectives,” going through published works for evidence of fraud.

They use tips, crunch numbers, as well as their instincts to uncover any false information.

“Once you see the pattern across many different papers, it becomes like a one in a quadrillion chance that there’s some benign explanation,” said Simmons.

According to Retraction Watch, at least 5,500 faulty papers were retracted last year alone, compared to 119 in 2002.

When Data Colada was first launched in 2013, it was initially to express ideas about the benefits and pitfalls of statistical tools and data analyses.

Over time, data detectives have aimed to keep science honest during a time in which much of the public’s faith in science has become questionable.

Read more about how scientists are working to preserve science’s integrity in The Wall Street Journal.

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This video explores why academics fake data.