Samenvatting

The phenomenon of scientific fraud has to be studied within the context of neoliberal meritocracy. In this organisational system, the position of the individual within a group (society, university, etc.) is determined by his or her merits in terms of (economic) productivity. Although this sounds fair, neoliberal meritocracy leads to social inequality, unlimited competition between individuals, egoism, priority of quantity over quality, and the irrelevance of ethics. Within the world of scientific research, neoliberal meritocracy leads to sloppy or even fraudulent science, because it incites researchers to prioritize publication criteria before qualitative research.