15.
A research paper by several scientists was published in Science (a prestigious scientific journal). One year later, other scientists in the same research area discovered mistakes in the procedures used and alerted the authors. The authors agreed to the inadvertent mistakes. They could no longer be confident in their results, so they asked Science to retract their paper, or remove it from publication. Which of the following statements best describes this situation?
A:
The literature is an archive of knowledge; thus, any known mistakes should be removed.
B:
The authors simply made a mistake; there is no need to retract the paper.
C:
The scientists who found the mistakes were just being picky.
D:
The authors should be punished for their ignorance.
The answer is:
A
