Test report forgery (revision 7)

Test report forgery is the fabrication of an analytical report, or the alteration, misattribution or reuse of a genuine one. It is the reason a document cannot by itself establish anything about a material: a document is an assertion, and assertions can be manufactured as easily as the things they describe.^[1]

Four distinct practices are usually grouped under the term. A wholly fabricated report describes work never done. An altered report changes figures on a genuine document. A misattributed report is a genuine report on other material presented as covering this one. A reused report is a genuine report on an old lot presented as current.^[2]

The last two are the most common and the hardest to detect, because the document is genuine and will survive any inspection of the document itself. What distinguishes them is the relationship between the document and the material, which is a question about traceability rather than about the paper.

Only the last two are detectable from the document plus the vial, and only if the vial carries a batch number to check against. This is why the presence of a lot identifier on both is more informative than any figure on the certificate.^[2]

Fabrication and alteration are detectable in principle by asking the named laboratory whether it issued the report. Whether that is possible depends on the laboratory's practice; some issue reports with a verifiable reference and some do not. A report that cannot be checked with its issuer is not thereby forged — most are not — but it is unconfirmable.^[3]