Earlier this week, we reported on the retraction of another paper by Jatinder Ahluwalia, whose record of misconduct has left marks at Cambridge and University College London. Today, a spokesperson for Imperial College London, where the soon-to-be-retracted work formed the basis of Ahluwalia’s PhD, tells Retraction Watch that a committee will review Ahluwalia’s doctorate:
The academics asked to independently re-run the experiments were unable to replicate the findings published in the paper Activation of capsaicin-sensitive primary sensory neurones induces anandamide production and release and so the authors decided to withdraw this from the Journal of Neurochemistry. The findings also formed the basis of Dr Ahluwalia’s PhD. The College has therefore written to Dr Ahluwalia to notify him that it believes it has grounds to investigate the validity of the data in his PhD. It will be convening a panel to review the award in accordance with its policy for investigating allegations of research misconduct.
Last month, Ahluwalia left his post at University of East London following an investigation there, a development first reported by the Times Higher Education.
We’ll update with anything else we hear, and in the meantime you can read all of our coverage here.