Earlier this week, we asked what is likely to happen to papers published by William Hamman, the United pilot who claimed — falsely — to also be a cardiologist. Read more about the episode here.
One of the journals in which Hamman published, the American Journal of Medical Quality, will “amend the paper to correct” Hamman’s credentials — or lack thereof, a journal staffer told us today. The journal hasn’t dealt with this sort of thing before, so is checking with the publisher before making the change. They “plan to get it done as quickly as they can do it.”
We haven’t seen this sort of thing either. Journals periodically make unintentional errors in affiliations and credentials, but that is a simple correction notice. This one might be more complex, as we suggested to the journal when they asked for advice in how to word it.
We’ll update as we hear from other journals where Hamman published.
Back in the 1970s at a university that I was associated with, there was a guy employed as a lecturer in the Geography Dept. He’d been there for a few years teaching geography to undergrads and, apparently, he was quite good.
Anyway, he decided to apply for promotion to Senior Lecturer and as his application was being processed, someone did a routine check of his qualifications and found that he had none. He was actually a hairdresser.
He was quietly asked to leave.