[curiosity]

Yeah, I guess you're right. They look carefully at descriptive statistics and the like, and sloppy fraud can often be exposed simply by finding inconsistancy in these things.

But if the fraud artist is smart, he can ensure that such things are not going to show up.

[omega4412]

...They look carefully at descriptive statistics and the like, and sloppy fraud can often be exposed simply by finding inconsistancy...

I think that's a fair statement. Peer review can catch low-quality fraud but the key to catching high-quality fraud is seeing whether the experiments can be reproduced in another lab.