About two weeks ago, we reported that Jatinder Ahluwalia — a scientist at the University of East London (UEL) who had been found guilty of scientific misconduct at University College London (UCL) — had been dismissed from the University of Cambridge’s graduate studies program for data fabrication. A dean at UEL told us later that week that the university was looking into the situation, and the lack of progress and communication from senior officials apparently has the faculty in an uproar.
We learned today from a UCL spokesperson, in response to questions from Retraction Watch, that Ahluwalia did not inform UCL in his application that he had been dismissed from Cambridge.
Ahluwalia earned his PhD at Imperial College London. We have a message into that university asking the same question, and will update with whatever we hear back.
It appears the retractions are coming from a relatively small number of researchers. Not clear why this pattern exists, but many can agree it is positive to see quality control being promoted.
But did they ask him whether he’d ever been dismissed?
That’s a crucial question. It’s one thing if they asked him and he lied; but if they didn’t bother to ask, it’s hardly surprising that he didn’t tell them…
Yes, we’ve asked that follow-up question. Will let you know what we find out.
Perhaps friend Jatinder can follow the example of “zu Googleberg”.
As the plagiarist he has retracted his own PhD and Angela Merkel has let him continue in his job.
But he has a personal fortune of € 300 million to fall back on!
I recently went through the applications for postdoctoral jobs at a number of other British unis.
Out of 4 universities I applied to only one (Oxford) explicitly asked about previous disciplinary proceedings on the application form –
“Has your current or previous employer instigated disciplinary proceedings against you which have resulted in a warning or other disciplinary action which is still ‘live’?”
The other 3 didn’t. Another did have a box where you give details of your past employment with a column for “Reason For Leaving”. However you could just say you “resigned for personal reasons”, which would technically be true if you resigned before you were sacked.
They all ask about criminal convictions but that’s not much use for academic misconduct.
Then there’s referees, the norm is to ask for 2 or 3 references from previous employers & this is taken quite seriously however given that you get to pick your own referees, someone with a “chequered” past could just pick the white squares, as it were.