Jonathan Pruitt, a behavioral ecologist and Canada 150 Research Chair who has had a dozen papers retracted following allegations of data fraud, now appears to have had his doctoral dissertation withdrawn.
The news, which was first noted by Nick DiRienzo, who co-authored papers with Pruitt but has been one of the scientists trying to cleanse the scientific record of Pruitt’s problematic work, suggests that Priutt now lacks a PhD, generally considered a requirement for professorships.
Pruitt earned his PhD at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He was a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before joining McMaster University. In January 2020, some of his co-authors began expressing concern about the data he had provided them, and began trying to retract affected papers.
Pruitt denied allegations of data fraud, and even enlisted lawyers — and public records requests — to try to block some of the retractions. Daniel Bolnick, editor in chief of The American Naturalist, which published three of Pruitt’s now-retracted papers, chronicles significant parts of the saga, and of Pruitt’s colleagues to clean up the literature.
Pruitt, whose McMaster University lab page is still active but whose Twitter bio says he is based in rural Florida, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Update, 2200 UTC, 11/15/21: A University of Tennessee spokesperson declined to comment on the circumstances of the withdrawal or whether there was an investigation into Pruitt’s work:
The University of Tennessee is committed to integrity in all of its research endeavors, including student work. The university is prohibited from disclosing student information, including the presence or absence of a research integrity investigation, based on FERPA.
This is a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.
Like Retraction Watch? You can make a one-time tax-deductible contribution by PayPal or by Square, or a monthly tax-deductible donation by Paypal to support our work, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.
I noticed that statement ages ago (maybe a year?), and I also saw another outlet (maybe Twitter?) comment on it. I don’t think it was a retraction, per se, just that they didn’t want people to look at his dissertation.
Has RW contacted the University of Tennessee commented on it?
Can a PhD degree be withdrawn due to allegations of data fraud? Has someone repeated his experiments and arrived at different results with evidence of actual fraud? How is the scientific method followed in such cases?
Good question. The failure to replicate the specific ‘results’ can reinforce the allegation, but that is different than establishing needed proof of ‘fraud’, per se. During an HHS Appeals Hearing once we did have an NIH expert repeat the experiment to preemptively rule out whether the method itself could have produced the specific aa data claimed (which was just part of the original allegation). But that is different than arguing what the raw data shows.
I just want to be clear that I’m by no means 100% sure that it was withdrawn due to data issues we’ve seen other areas. It seems likely as it was known UT was looking into his dissertation work, so would be strange that it was noted as withdrawn for other reasons. But still, just want to point out that I’m not getting this from any statement or official source other than seeing it noted here: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/842/
I think the confusion here is the meaning of the word “withdrawn” on the UT website. I took it to mean “(currently) not available to the public”, rather than, for example “we no longer stand by this research, and retract it”
Do you think someone at the graduate school (gradschool@utk.edu) might respond to a query?
Would you please update the name of Pruitt’s professorship? He holds a “Canada 150 Research Chair”.
https://www.canada150.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/chairholders-titulaires/index-eng.aspx
These are (at least for Canada) prestigious and lucrative appointments, and there are only 24 of them in the whole country; McMaster has exactly one of them.
By contrast, the “Canada Research Chairs” program is a minor funding stream that essentially buys partial teaching release for several thousand researchers all across the country. A scandal involving a mere CRC would be sad but not as bad as the Pruitt scandal.
Done.
I wonder if his “rural Florida” Twitter bio location is actually a new update. He has a vignette that says “ I was born in a tiny, conservative, orange-grove town in central Florida ….” Still, very odd to list one’s home of their youth in “rural Florida” whilst one is a professor in Canada. He was tweeting in September 2021, so it’s not like he set the account up years ago and left it.
https://500queerscientists.com/jonathan-pruitt/
I think he also posted some photos of hikes and things he said we’re in Florida. He says he’s been writing a fantasy book. Sometimes the jokes write themselves.
His Wikipedia article was edited over a month ago to note his thesis had been withdrawn. That edit was made by an IP that resolves to McGill University:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jonathan_Pruitt&diff=1047850055&oldid=1044360888
Article from the Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s two national newspapers:
McMaster scientist put on paid leave after integrity investigation into data irregularities
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-mcmaster-scientist-put-on-paid-leave-after-integrity-investigation/
Retraction
https://pubpeer.com/publications/B7B205D3A658A944795ABB498C0FBA
For the horrible cherry on top of the nasty cake, one of Pruitt’s lab alumni, Colin Wright, is a Public Transphobe on Twitter