A microbiologist formerly of Osaka University has lost four papers, with at least one more retraction pending, after an institutional investigation found fabrication and falsification of data in his published research.
The investigation found evidence of manipulated results in seven of the papers examined. The university published the notice of its completed inquiry, along with a full report in Japanese, on February 6.
The report did not name the scientists or cite the articles investigated, but it did include a figure or table with altered data from each paper. Three papers retracted in February mentioned an investigation by Osaka University in the notices; Yukihiro Hiramatsu was the first author on all three. Comparing the figures in the report with ones in Hiramatsu’s publications, we identified the seven articles. (See the list here.)
Three articles have not yet been retracted or corrected, as the university recommended. In response to our request for comment, a representative of Osaka University told us “the authors are currently taking steps to retract or correct” those three papers. A spokesperson for the publisher of the papers told us one retraction was pending and it was still investigating the others.
The retracted articles listed Hiramatsu having been working in Osaka’s Research Institute for Microbial Diseases; our email to his university address was not returned and we were unable to find a current affiliation or email for him. The senior author of the articles, Yasuhiko Horiguchi, did not respond to our request for comment.
The investigation report refers to the first and corresponding author of most of the papers, Hiramatsu, as “Dr. A.” According to a machine translation of the report, he admitted to most of the research misconduct the investigation identified. “Dr. A” also acknowledged in interviews he was aware his actions constituted misconduct.
“Dr. A” told the investigators he committed research misconduct because he wanted to produce favorable data to help him publish papers in higher-quality journals to aid in seeking his next position, according to the report. The report also stated “Dr. A.” said he wanted to spend his time on other, more interesting experiments than those required for publications, and had limited opportunity to do so due to writing papers and grant applications.
Horiguchi, called “Dr. B” in the report, did not ask to see “Dr. A’s” raw data or notebooks, and “Dr. A” did not think such records were always necessary, according to the report.
If the laboratory had a system for checking raw data and notebooks, the misconduct could have been caught sooner, the report concluded.
Hiramatsu’s first retraction came on January 1, for a paper in Science Advances originally published in 2022. It has been cited five times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.
The notice did not mention Osaka University’s investigation. It stated “an author discovered” eight figures in the article plus three supplementary figures “did not have adequate supporting data.” The authors requested the retraction and all agreed to it, according to the notice.
mBio and mSphere, titles of the American Society for Microbiology, published similar retraction notices for two of Hiramatsu’s papers on February 5. The senior and corresponding author’s laboratory conducted an investigation and found data shown in the articles’ figures “are the results of fabricated experiments or extensive falsification,” the notices stated. They continued:
An official investigation is ongoing at Osaka University, and certain results will require further verification by re-experimentation. Therefore, we are retracting the article and regret any inconvenience this may have caused.
The mSphere article appeared in October 2021 and has been cited eight times. The mBio paper appeared in March 2022 and has been cited 12 times, 10 of which were after a May 2022 correction.
The fourth retracted paper appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in September 2023 and has been cited twice. The retraction notice, dated February 11 and signed by all authors except Hiramatsu, stated they were retracting the article because an investigation by Osaka University “has concluded that the majority of this article’s reported results are unreliable.”
The remaining three articles in which the university found manipulated results were all published in Microbiology and Immunology, a Wiley title, and have yet to be retracted.
A Wiley spokesperson told us the publisher had decided to retract one of the papers, published in March 2020 and cited six times.
Wiley’s investigation into the other two papers continues, according to a spokesperson. While the report called for withdrawing the other papers, it recommended correcting these two articles, which have been cited two and three times, respectively.
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