Under protest, OSU cancer researcher dogged by misconduct allegations stepping down as department chair

Carlo Croce, a professor at The Ohio State University in Columbus who has faced multiple investigations into misconduct allegations, has been forced to step down from his post as department chair.

As ABC6 in Columbus reports,

Carlo Croce says he’s feeling blindsided after he was told to step down as a department chair in OSU’s College of Medicine.

“He told the dean he was not going to step down,” said Croce’s attorney, James Arnold. “He asked for a reason. He wasn’t given any.”

Croce is chair of OSU’s Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics. OSU is not giving the reason for the move, but in a statement to Retraction Watch, said:

Effective January 1, 2019, Carlo Croce will no longer be the chair and the standard procedures were followed in making that change.

Arnold did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The allegations against Croce were reported in March 2017 by The New York Times, whom Croce sued two months later for defamation. Earlier this month, a judge threw out most of Croce’s case. Two weeks ago, Croce dropped the one claim that remained after the judge’s ruling, and on November 20 Arnold filed notice to appeal the case to a higher court.

By our count, Croce has now had eight papers retracted, and more than a dozen papers corrected or subject to an expression of concern.

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