Allegations of fake research reach record highs

Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services received 274 reports of research misconduct, representing a 50% increase over 2003.

Allegations included falsifying or fabricating data or plagiarism. It is suspected that the reports represent just a small fraction of the misconduct that actually occurs.

One example included making up research on aging and hormone supplements in order to secure federal grants, for which Eric Poehlman, the first researcher to be permanently barred from receiving federal grants, could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

In another instance Dr. Ali Sultan an award-winning researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, plagiarized text and figures and falsified data, substituting one type of malaria for another. At present, he is teaching at a medical school in Qatar.

According to an AP report (July 10, 2005), it would appear that at least one offender has been “rehabilitated.” Dr. Andrew Friedman, a reputedly brilliant surgeon and researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in 1995 confessed to faking data and creating fictitious patients for papers published in respected, peer-reviewed journals. He is now a senior director of clinical research at Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company.

A survey of scientists funded by the NIH “suggests that mundane ‘regular’ misbehaviours present greater threats to the scientific enterprise than those caused by high-profile misconduct cases such as fraud.”

At least 33% of respondents said they had engaged in at least one of the top 10 forms of misconduct during the prior three years. Between 15 and 20% said they had changed the design, methodology, or results of a study in response to pressure from a funding source (Nature, June 2005).

SOURCE:  Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc, “News of the Day” advisory, July 13, 2005.