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Showing posts with label Falsified Data. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Falsified Data. Show all posts

Sunday, June 25, 2023

Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino Accused of Committing Data Fraud

Rahem D. Hamid
Crimson Staff Writer
Originally published 24 June 23

Here is an excerpt:

But in a post on June 17, Data Colada wrote that they found evidence of additional data fabrication in that study in a separate experiment that Gino was responsible for.

Harvard has also been internally investigating “a series of papers” for more than a year, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Data Colada wrote last week that the University’s internal report may be around 1,200 pages.

The professors added that Harvard has requested that three other papers co-authored by Gino — which Data Colada flagged — also be retracted and that the 2012 paper’s retraction be amended to include Gino’s fabrications.

Last week, Bazerman told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he was informed by Harvard that the experiments he co-authored contained additional fraudulent data.

Bazerman called the evidence presented to him by the University “compelling,” but he denied to the Chronicle that he was at all involved with the data manipulation.

According to Data Colada, Gino was “the only author involved in the data collection and analysis” of the experiment in question.

“To the best of our knowledge, none of Gino’s co-authors carried out or assisted with the data collection for the studies in question,” the professors wrote.

In their second post on Tuesday, the investigators wrote that a 2015 study co-authored by Gino also contains manipulations to prove the paper’s hypothesis.

Observations in the paper, the three wrote, “were altered to produce the desired effect.”

“And if these observations were altered, then it is reasonable to suspect that other observations were altered as well,” they added.


Science is a part of a healthy society:
  • Scientific research relies on the integrity of the researchers. When researchers fabricate or falsify data, they undermine the trust that is necessary for scientific progress.
  • Data fraud can have serious consequences. It can lead to the publication of false or misleading findings, which can have a negative impact on public policy, business decisions, and other areas.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Responding to whistleblower’s claims, Duke admits research data falsification

Ray Gronberg
The Herald-Sun
Originally published July 2, 2017

In-house investigators at Duke University believe a former lab tech falsified or fabricated data that went into 29 medical research reports, lawyers for the university say in their answer to a federal whistleblower lawsuit against it.

Duke’s admissions concern the work of Erin Potts-Kant, and a probe it began in 2013 when she was implicated in an otherwise-unrelated embezzlement. The lawsuit, from former lab analyst Joseph Thomas, contends Duke and some of its professors used the phony data to fraudulently obtain federal research grants. He also alleges they ignored warning signs about Potts-Kants’ work, and tried to cover up the fraud.

The university’s lawyers have tried to get the case dismissed, but in April, a federal judge said it can go ahead. The latest filings thus represent Duke’s first answer to the substance of Thomas’ allegations.

Up front, it said Potts-Kant told a Duke investigating committee that she’d faked data that wound up being “included in various publications and grant applications.”

The article is here.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Science Faction: Why Most Scientific Research Results are Wrong

Bloggingheads.tv
John Horgan and George Johnson discuss issues related to science

Why most scientific research results are wrong?

Is competition making fudged data more likely?

Science is not a triumphal march

Can academic publishing be reformed?

Essential and inessential skills for young science writers

The Big Bang and the case against falsifiability


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

OSU prof falsified research results, probes find

Elton hit with work restrictions; he must seek retractions from journals

By  Ben Sutherly
The Columbus Dispatch
Originally published December 22, 2012

An Ohio State University pharmacy professor has agreed to request retractions of much of his research after university and government officials found that he falsified data in six journal articles.

As part of an agreement disclosed yesterday, Terry S. Elton said he will avoid contracting or subcontracting with any agency of the federal government for three years, or serving in any advisory capacity to the U.S. Public Health Service for three years. He will request that five of his scientific publications be retracted.

Federal and university investigations found that Elton falsified data from Western blots, a standard laboratory technique used to detect proteins. Some of Elton’s research explored the brain functions of people with Down syndrome.

The entire story is here.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

UConn Investigation Finds That Health Researcher Fabricated Data

By Tom Bartlett
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Originally published January 11, 2012

Dipak K. Das
A three-year investigation by the University of Connecticut has found that the director of its Cardiovascular Research Center falsified and fabricated data at least 145 times, in some cases digitally manipulating images using PhotoShop.

The researcher, Dipak K. Das, is best known for his work on resveratrol, a compound present in grapes and other foods that some research suggests can have beneficial effects on the heart and could slow aging, though recent studies have cast doubt on the latter claim.

The university has begun a process to dismiss Das, who has tenure.

Das has been quoted regularly in news articles, usually talking about resveratrol, and his papers have been cited often, as the blog Retraction Watch points out. But the importance of his research is unclear.

David Sinclair, a professor of pathology at Harvard University who is known for his discovery that resveratrol appears to extend the life of mice and fruit flies, said he had not heard of Das. “I’ve not worked with him,” Sinclair wrote in an e-mail. “Looking through it, the work is generally not published in leading molecular-biology journals.”

The entire article is here.

Another article from The New York Times is here.