Additional Research Misconduct Scandals Hit Harvard Hard
Jose Nino
|
Harvard University has received two new research misconduct allegations according to a report by Neeraja Deshpande of The College Fix.
These two new allegations bring the total number of scandals the Ivy League institution is facing in the timeframe of two months to four.
The recent set of allegations involve a leading Harvard University neuroscientist and several researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, which is connected to the Harvard University.
These allegations came after a long complaint dealing with an alleged case of plagiarism filed against Harvard University’s Diversity and Inclusion Officer Sherri Ann Charleston. On top of that, former Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned early on in January after several cases of plagiarism surfaced.
In recent times, Elisabeth Bik, a data manipulation expert and microbiologist, sent her analysis to the Harvard Crimson on February 1. Her analysis alleged that leading Harvard Medical School neuroscientist Khalid Shah fudged data and engaged in image plagiarization in 21 papers.
Bik informed the Harvard Crimson that one of Shah’s former colleagues informed her of his alleged research misconduct. She has been working on a blog post that details the allegations being levied against Shah.
Bik also manifested concerns about sketchy research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute — which is connected to the university — in 2019. This research added fuel to new data falsification allegations against Dana-Farber that were made on January 2 by British molecular biologist Sholto David.
David cited 58 Dana-Farber-connected studies, where he discovered data irregularities from four Harvard and Dana-Farber-connected scientists that hinted at manipulation.
Even though the raw data for the studies was not made available to the public, David was still able to discover scientific images in multiple papers that were edited or photoshopped. He called attention to how several of these research errors were likely due to basic copy-and-paste mistakes, but several may have been intentional forms of dishonesty.
There’s a clear decline in overall academic standards and integrity in higher education institutions nationwide. Even elite institutions like Harvard are not exempt from this decay.
There ultimately needs to be a regime change not just in political structures but also in the leadership at universities.
The present set of leaders are simply not capable of maintaining a tight ship.
Share: