Nasser Chegini, an ob-gyn formerly on the faculty at the University of Florida who has been the subject of an Office of Research Integrity (ORI) inquiry for several years, has a second retraction.
Chegini is suspected of having used bogus data in some of his work — research backed in part by some $4 million in federal funding.
The new retraction involves a 2008 paper in Reproductive Sciences on which Chegini was senior author. Here’s the notice:
Toloubeydokhti T, Pan Q, Luo X, Bukulmez O, Chegini N. The expression and ovarian steroid regulation of endometrial micro-RNAs. Reprod Sci. 2008;15:993-1001.
Following an investigation by the University of Florida providing evidence of the senior (last) author’s use of falsified or fabricated data in Figures 1, 2 and 3, the above-mentioned article has been retracted. None of the other authors, Tannaz Toloubeydokhti, Qun Pan, Xiaoping Luo, and Orhan Bukulmez, were the subject of the investigation.
The paper has been cited 42 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.
As we reported in 2012, Chegini lost a paper in Molecular Human Reproduction. At the time, Helen Beard, editor of the journal, told us:
The first communication came by email on 18 May 2012 from The Senior Associate Dean for Research Affairs and the Chair of the Department of Obstretics and Gynaecology of the University of Florida. At our request this was followed up by additional information on July 12 2012.
Evidence for falsification of Figures 1,3, and 4 obtained following an investigation by the University of Florida was provided by the departmental Chair. All three researchers responded to our follow-up emails and we derived the wording of the retraction statement with their collaboration, and with the approval of the Associate Vice president for Research at the university of Florida, and representatives of the ORI. We believe this wording is complete and true.
… At the request of the ORI the investigation of scientific misconduct by Dr Chegini has been re-opened and extended in scope.