Harvard Cancer Center requests retraction of articles – 01/23/2024 – Health

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, affiliated with Harvard Medical School and one of the most prestigious oncology centers in the world, announced this Monday (22) that it will request the retraction of six scientific articles and the correction of another 31 following allegations of manipulation of data and images.

The decision is part of an ongoing investigation that is reviewing several studies, including some co-authored by the institute’s CEO and president, Laurie Glimcher, director of operations, William Hahn, and renowned researchers such as Irene Ghobrial and Kenneth Anderson.

The four are professors at Harvard, an institution that has faced a series of allegations of misconduct. Earlier this month, Claudine Gay resigned as university president amid accusations of plagiarism and following backlash over statements she made about anti-Semitism at a congressional hearing in December.

Gay requested corrections to some of his writings due to issues the university described as “inappropriate citations.”

Last year, Harvard Business School placed professor Francesca Gino on administrative leave following accusations that her work contained falsified data.

According to Barrett Rollins, scientific director emeritus and responsible for research integrity at the cancer institute, some requests for retractions and corrections have already been sent to scientific journals and others are being prepared.

“We are committed to a culture of responsibility and integrity. Therefore, each investigation is fully examined to ensure the solidity of the scientific literature,” he said in a statement distributed to the North American press.

The Dana-Farber Cancer investigation comes after molecular biologist Sholto David published a blog post titled “Dana-Farberications at Harvard University,” alleging that researchers at the cancer institute manipulated images and data.

He cited articles published between 1999 and 2017 that contained stretched, obscured or spliced ​​images. For David, these images suggest deliberate attempts to deceive readers.

The biologist says he used a combination of artificial intelligence image analysis software and manual detection to look for errors in the articles.

The use of artificial intelligence tools has made it possible to discover several articles suspected of plagiarism and manipulated images and results.

Recently, evidence of fabricated data in several articles about Alzheimer’s disease has come to light. Last year, Marc Tessier-Lavigne resigned as president of Stanford University after it was discovered that some of his published papers contained manipulated results.

According to Rollins, the institution was already analyzing “potential data errors” in several cases listed by the blog even before David’s revelation, but reinforced that the problems discovered do not necessarily represent misconduct.

“The presence of image discrepancies in an article is not evidence of the author’s intent to deceive,” Rollins said in the statement.

“This conclusion can only be drawn after careful, fact-based examination, which is an integral part of our response. Our experience is that errors are often unintentional and do not rise to the level of misconduct.”

He further stated that some allegations raised in the blog against Dana-Farber researchers are “wrong”, while others concern data generated in external laboratories. In total, 16 manuscripts remain under analysis.