Spider researcher Jonathan Pruitt faked data in multiple papers, university finds

An investigation at McMaster University found that Jonathan Pruitt, a behavioral ecologist by training who has had 15 papers retracted in the last three years, “engaged in fabrication and falsification” including duplicating data, according to summarized findings sent to coauthors.  

Kate Laskowski, an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, shared on Twitter the summary McMaster had sent her about three papers she had coauthored with Pruitt. 

Whoa, on a random Wednesday 3.5 years later, the craziest chapter of my career comes to a close (I hope). McMaster released summarized findings of their #pruittdata investigations. "The committee found that Dr. Pruitt engaged in fabrication…"

And that, as they say, is that. pic.twitter.com/lM55P2rVt4

— Kate Laskowski (@KateLaskowski) May 10, 2023

McMaster’s investigation found Pruitt “generally failed to meet the requirements expected of a tenured professor” under the university’s research integrity policy, and had breached the policy in multiple ways: 

The Committee also found that Dr. Pruitt failed to exhibit the rigour, reasonably necessary to comply with the Policy, in the performance of their research or in reporting their data and findings in the various papers which were examined. In addition, the Committee found that Dr. Pruitt engaged in inadequate record-keeping which breached the Policy, including that Dr. Pruitt did not fulfill their obligations to keep complete and accurate records of their data in a manner that would allow for verification or replication.

In brief, the facts submitted established that data and sequences of data were duplicated in all three papers. The Committee was also satisfied that Dr. Pruitt engaged in fabrication and falsification with respect to whether spiders were collected for the study conducted and concerning which spiders were used and whether the assays were conducted to support the papers. The positions advanced by Dr. Pruitt to explain the data and sequence duplication were not accepted by the Committee. The Committee also accepted that there are no statistical or biological explanations for the types of duplication observed in the papers.

Laskowski told us that multiple summaries of findings about other papers were sent out, and another she’d seen was “very similar” to the one she received. McMaster University has not responded to our request for comment. 

Typically, Pruitt would claim to have collected data in the field and then share it with collaborators at various institutions who took it on faith that the data were real. Laskowski was one of those collaborators who kicked off public scrutiny of Pruitt’s work in 2020 after being alerted to anomalies in the data. The case gained attention when she tweeted about retracting one of the papers. 

All three she co-authored with Pruitt have since been retracted, as well as a dozen Pruitt coauthored with other scientists who reevaluated their work after Laskowski came forward. Six additional papers have received corrections or expressions of concern. Pruitt’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was withdrawn in 2021.

Pruitt resigned from a prestigious Canada 150 Research Chair position at McMaster last summer after reaching a settlement with the university, Science reported at the time. Pruitt appears to be listed as a science teacher at Tampa Catholic High School in Florida, but the extension on their faculty page directs to a different person’s voicemail. Pruit has not responded to a request for comment sent to their school email address. 

Laskowski told us that McMaster’s lack of transparency in the case had been “frustrating.” She said: 

I honestly assumed we’d never hear anything about the results of McMaster’s investigation, so this is a pleasant, albeit highly delayed, surprise. I had come to the same conclusion on my own years ago, but it’s nice to have some measure of closure on the whole thing.

Update, 2100 UTC, 5/11/23: McMaster released a statement about the findings and published a “copy of the committee’s key findings.” The statement reads, in part:

When the university received complaints about some of Pruitt’s research in early 2020. McMaster retained retired academic and prominent labour arbitrator William Kaplan to investigate the matter. Throughout the investigation more complaints surfaced that required the university to expand Kaplan’s mandate and required the review of thousands of documents. As well, Kaplan interviewed Pruitt eight times, along with 13 other people, including complainants, co-investigators, and witnesses. The university immediately began its hearing process after receiving Kaplan’s report.  

Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution 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 [email protected].