Search Results for: fraud

Weekend reads: Gay canvassing study redux; editors fired; how the world’s biggest faker was caught

This week at Retraction Watch was dominated by the Science same-sex marriage study, after we broke the news Wednesday morning that one of its authors had requested its retraction. (And crashed our servers in the process.) So the first section of this Weekend Reads will focus on pieces following up on that story: The New … Continue reading Weekend reads: Gay canvassing study redux; editors fired; how the world’s biggest faker was caught

Author retracts study of changing minds on same-sex marriage after colleague admits data were faked

In what can only be described as a remarkable and swift series of events, one of the authors of a much-ballyhooed Science paper claiming that short conversations could change people’s minds on same-sex marriage is retracting it following revelations that the data were faked by his co-author. [3:45 p.m. Eastern, 5/28/15: Please see an update … Continue reading Author retracts study of changing minds on same-sex marriage after colleague admits data were faked

Third retraction for GWU biologist as university seeks to dismiss his $8 million lawsuit

Cancer biologist Rakesh Kumar has chalked up another retraction, this time for “identical,” “duplicated,” and “replicated” figures and images. It comes on the heels of a flurry of motions in Kumar’s $8 million lawsuit against his employer, George Washington University, for breach of contract and emotional distress because it removed him as department chair last year and … Continue reading Third retraction for GWU biologist as university seeks to dismiss his $8 million lawsuit

So you want to be a whistleblower? Part II

This is the second article in a series by John R. Thomas, Jr., a lawyer at Gentry Locke [Editor’s note, 3/26/19: He has since moved to Haley, Hafemann, Magee and Thomas] who represents whistleblowers in a variety of False Claims Act cases. In this installment, he writes about how whistleblowers can tell if they have … Continue reading So you want to be a whistleblower? Part II

Misconduct earns researcher a five-year ban on federal funding

A University of Minnesota former chemistry graduate student has been banned from receiving federal funding for five years based on “a preponderance of the evidence that the Respondent intentionally and knowingly engaged in research misconduct.” Venkata J. Reddy appears to have manipulated findings in one R01 grant application. In recent years, bans are less common than having … Continue reading Misconduct earns researcher a five-year ban on federal funding

Trove of VA reports reveals research misconduct, medical malpractice

Last week, the Veteran Affairs Office of Inspector General released eight years of reports investigating allegations of nefarious behavior at VA hospitals and institutions around the country, ranging from mistreating a patient in Florida, misspending grant money in New York, and conducting unauthorized research in Iowa. In one report,

“Super-surgeon” Macchiarini not guilty of misconduct, per one Karolinska investigation

Surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, who is under investigation for allegedly downplaying dangers of an experimental surgery, has been cleared of some misconduct allegations by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Macchiarini, a thoracic surgeon, has made headlines for repairing damaged airways using tracheas from cadavers and even synthetic tracheas, both treated with the patients’ own stem cells to … Continue reading “Super-surgeon” Macchiarini not guilty of misconduct, per one Karolinska investigation