Third retraction appears for former Wash U neuroscience grad student who committed misconduct

Five months after the Office of Research Integrity announced they had found evidence of misconduct by Adam Savine, a former Washington University graduate student in neuroscience, another journal has published a retraction of his work.

Here’s the retraction notice in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General for “A characterization of individual differences in prospective memory monitoring using the Complex Ongoing Serial Task”:

This retraction follows the results of an investigation into the work of Adam C. Savine, published in the Federal Register by the Office of Research Integrity on March 7, 2013. The Office of Research Integrity found that Adam C. Savine engaged in research misconduct by falsifying results to show that prospective memory is influenced by three dissociable underlying monitoring patterns, which are stable within individuals over time and are influenced by personality and cognitive differences. Data were modified to support the three category model and to show (1) that individuals fitting into each of the three categories exhibited differential patterns of prospective memory performance and ongoing task performance in Tables 1–3 and Figures 5–8; and (2) that certain cognitive and personality differences were predictive of distinct monitoring approaches within the three categories in Figure 9. His co-authors were unaware of his actions and were not involved in falsifying.

The study has been cited four times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge. Savine’s two other retractions appeared last month.

Hat tip: Rolf Degen