The guy fabricated data to fool the editors. Academia relies on researchers being honest and not doing so -- there simply aren't any resources for journals to do independent replication of all received papers before accepting them for publication. That's precisely why data fabrication is taken so seriously and the consequences of doing so are basically career ending -- it's the deterrent to incentivize people to be honest.
Edit: Also can we not lump all of academia into the same basket? The standards in computer science/math/physics are very different from that in biology/medicine which in turn are very different from those in humanities
Edit: Also can we not lump all of academia into the same basket? The standards in computer science/math/physics are very different from that in biology/medicine which in turn are very different from those in humanities