Stories in the Print Media - sorted by subject | sorted by date | sorted by source
Date | Source | Title & Summary |
| August 24, 2009 | The Chronicle | "Professor at Canada's McGill U. Admits Signing Research Generated by Drug Maker" by Paul Basken - Barbara B. Sherwin, a professor of psychology at McGill University in Montreal, acknowledged that she agreed to have her name appear on an article about estrogen and memory loss that was actually written by a freelance author for Wyeth. |
| August 5, 2009 | The New York Times | "Medical Papers by Ghostwriters Pushed Therapy" by Natasha Singer - It was recently discovered that between 1998 and 2005, 26 scientific papers published in various journals about the positive effects of hormone replacement therapy in women were a result of ghostwriters paid by Wyeth. The articles touted the benefits of using Wyeth's hormone drugs to treat menopause, Premarin and Prempro, while down-playing the risks, such as aging skin, heart disease and dementia. |
| July 31, 2009 | MSNBC | "Sperm made of stem cells claim retracted" by Associated Press - Researchers at Britain's Newcastle University retracted a controversial paper after finding that two paragraphs had been plagiarized. |
| July 2, 2009 | United States Committee on Finance | "Grassley asks top medical journals about ghostwriting" - Senator Chuck Grassley recently sent a five-question survey to eight leading medical journals in order to ascertain their policies on ghostwriting, a practice whereby a commercial entity or its contractor writes an article or manuscript and a scientist is listed as an author. |
| May 13, 2009 | The New York Times | "Doctor Falsified Study on Injuired G.I.'s, Army Says" by Duff Wilson and Barry Meier - Dr. Timothy R. Kuklo, a former Army surgeon at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and paid consultant to Medtronic Inc. was found to have fabricated patient data regarding a bone-growth product sold by Medtronic. Additionally, Dr. Kuklo forged the signatures of four Walter Reed Army doctors on an article that he submitted last year to a British medical journal. Kuklo also did not obtain the Army's permission to conduct the study. |
| March 9, 2009 | BMJ | "Prominent celecoxib researcher admits fabricating data in 21 articles" by Jeanne Lenzer - Scott S. Reuben, Associate Professor at Tufts University and chief of the acute pain service at Bayview Medical Center admitted to fabricating patient data in 21 of his 72 published articles. He received research grants from Pfizer and studied drugs such as Celebrex and Lyrica and their use in pain management. Reuben has since gone on medical leave at Bayview Medical Center, resigned from his associate professor position and will not be permitted to participate in research. |
| December 3, 2008 | The Scientist.com | Peili Gu, a postdoc at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, was found to have falsified images which appeared in three published manuscripts. Gu apparently used Photoshop to alter the images. One paper was retracted from Molecular and Cellular Biology. Gu was fired but has since been hired as a senior research assistant at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. |
| November 11, 2008 | The Scientist.com | Jusan Yang, a former molecular biologist at the University of Iowa, was found to have falsified figures which he used in two scientific meetings and an unpublished manuscript. Though this does not represent a major misconduct case, Yang resigned and is now volunteering with a health care facility in California. |
| October 6, 2008 | Scientific American | "Montagnier, Barré-Sinoussi, and zur Hausen Share Nobe" by Jordan Lite - Three scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their discoveries of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). French Professors Luc Montagnier and François Barré-Sinoussi were recognized for their discovery of HIV, caps a long controversy between the two French Professors and American Professor Robert Gallo. Gallo claimed to have identified HIV independently of Montagnier and Barré-Sinoussi although his work was published a year after theirs. A 1992 review panel at the National Academy of Sciences found evidence of research misconduct in Gallo's samples. |
| September 23, 2008 | The Wall Street Journal: Health Blog | "Most Drug Studies Remain Unpublished" by Jacob Goldstein - Researchers looking at pharmaceutical drugs passed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 1998 and 2000 found that 394 out of 909 total studies were published. Studies that included blind or double-blind trials (with the drug and placebo) were more likely to be published, especially those with favorable results. This raises concerns over FDA practices in approving drugs, since new FDA rules will make it mandatory for drug companies to release the results of clinical trials on an online registry. |
| September 10, 2008 | The New York Times | "Scientific Error Reignites Debate About Armstrong" by Ian Austen - Lance Armstrong preparing to return to the professional cycling tour has resurrected old controversy about allegations of performance enhancing drugs. Edward F. Coyle, an expert on human performance at the University of Texas in Austin, admitted a “minor miscalculation” in his long-term study of Armstrong’s muscle efficiency. That study had been repeatedly used by Armstrong to shoot down doping allegations of the 7-time Tour de France winner. Three Australian scientists and one mathematician have now pursued allegations of scientific misconduct against Coyle with the University of Texas. Robert Peterson, the vice president of research at the university, noted that there are deficiencies in the research, but none that rise to the level of scientific misconduct. |
| June 19, 2008 | The Financial Post | “Researcher fired over faked data; Ottawa institute discovers past misconduct” by Margaret Munro - The case of Kristin Roovers of Ottawa Health Research Institute is discussed. She was found to have falsified and manipulated data and images in several publications. |
| May 7, 2008 | The Australian | “Minister eyes watchdog” by Bernard Lane - A cabinet minister in the Australian government raises concerns about the ad hoc handling of research misconduct cases by Australian universities. The Australian government is considering some sort of review mechanism which would be “cost effective and have scientific and legal authority". |
| February 7, 2008 | Sydney Morning Herald | “Rats in the ranks” by Deborah Smith and Leonie Lamont - The article explores some research misconduct cases from the Monash University in Australia, and weighs in on a few issues related to reporting and investigation of scientific misconduct. The authors briefly explore the tension produced by the tough competition for funds, the demand to publish, and increased commercialization of research. These factors have not only increased the opportunities for scientists to behave badly but also to an increase in the number of “rats in the ranks". |
| January 23, 2007 | The Gazette | “Science watchdog urged: To combat fraud. Research misconduct rarely reported” by Margaret Munro - The article mentions the Chandra case from Newfoundland's Memorial University. The researcher made up babies for his studies on infant formula and to have inflated results of breast-feeding studies. The piece reports on calls for a national agency to monitor allegations of research misconduct in Canada. |
| March 2007 | The Lancet | “Reforming research in China” - An editorial in the Lancet mentions plans for the establishment of a commission for scientific integrity by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Technology in China. |
| May 15, 2007 | The Guardian | “Education: Higher: Whistleblowing in the wind?: A new hotline for those who suspect malpractice in medical research has not been universally welcomed” by Jessica Shepherd - The piece talks about the recent establishment of a Research Integrity Office in the UK. They have also introduced a hotline/helpline for reporting suspected research misconduct. The article also deals with some of the pros and cons of providing such a facility. |
| June 6, 2007 | The Australian | “Work so nice, they use it twice” by Brendan O'Keefe - The article briefly explores “self-plagiarism” in the research community. |
| December 15, 2007 | “A Hippocratic Oath for science; In the wake of faked data and ghosted research, Britain's chief science adviser is calling for a new code of ethics for scientists. But is a seven-point vow the answer to such problems - or could it create new ones?” by Anne McIlroy - The article reports on arguments for and against a universal code of research ethics, similar to the Hippocratic Oath. A universal code is being advocated in light of some of the high profile cases of research misconduct involving American Eric Poehlman and Southern Korean stem-cell researcher Hwang Woo Suk. | |
| November 28, 2007 | “UW: Researcher faked AIDS data, altered images” by Nick Perry and Carol M. Ostrom - Scott Brodie, a former University of Washington AIDS researcher, was found to have committed scientific misconduct by altering images and fabricating data in 15 separate instances. The investigation began when a rival researcher, who was reviewing a paper Brodie submitted for publication, noticed some anomalies and notified the federal Office of Research Integrity, which, in turn, notified the UW in August 2002. Not only did it cast doubt on Brodie's own work, but it also created problems for many other researchers who relied on his data. | |
| October 20, 2006 | The Philadelphia Inquirer | “Casting wide net for peers' review; Some academic journals are replacing the secret-evaluation part of the process with online critiques for research authors" by Dawn Fallik - The article reports an experiment by some academic journals, like Nature, to open the peer-review process by posting the papers online for review by a wider pool, as compared to the standard review process. Journal editors hope that by putting more research online, problems that escape a few select reviewers would be caught by a larger community. |
October 17, 2006 | “The Moral Laboratory: Should the world try to agree on a code of research ethics? Two academics confront the arguments” by Jonathan Wolff and Niall Scott - This is a very interesting article with two specialists exchanging emails arguing whether the world should attempt to agree on a code of international ethics. Professor Jonathan Wolff is head of philosophy at University College London, while Niall Scott is a lecturer in ethics at the Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire, Preston. | |
| October 10, 2006 | The Guardian | “World at one?” by Linda Nordling - Linda Nordling reports on efforts to ensure ethical standards are maintained in labs across the globe. Conditions in some of the developing countries may not meet the acceptable scientific standards of the more developed countries. This situation has prompted some experts to suggest a global code of research ethics to ensure compliance with western research standards and prevent abuse of cheaper facilities in developing countries. |
October 3, 2006 | “Best behavior” by Natasha Gilbert - The first of a three-part series looks at efforts to draw up definitive guidelines for research. The article gives an overview of the challenges posed by the ever-expanding field of research. |
