The k2p blog

I have the most wonderful memories of my time as a post-doc at University College Cardiff in the mid-70’s. This was where I was educated into the intricacies of the rules of rugby and the tribal rituals surrounding the game. Pubs and real ale and rugby grounds and rugby songs and – of course – Max Boyce.

So I was a little sad to read about the strange goings-on at the laboratory of the Dean of Medicine at what is now Cardiff University.  Lots and lots and lots of papers published by the Dean, Professor B P Morgan, (172 papers and 35 review articles or chapters since 1998 – giving 207 publications in about 180 months!) and now a retraction and a formal investigation into apparent image manipulation and duplication. A case of

 “There were all those doctor’s papers and they all said just the same”

(with apologies to Max Boyce and his great  lyrics to “We all had Doctor’s papers”)

THES:

Cardiff University has confirmed that it is to launch a formal investigation into alleged research misconduct in the laboratory of its dean of medicine.

The university set up a screening panel last month to carry out a preliminary investigation of allegations of image manipulation in at least six papers produced in the laboratory of Paul Morgan (referred to in his publications as B. P. Morgan).

The university has now confirmed, in a letter to those who reported the allegations, that the panel has found “sufficient substance” in the allegations for it to instigate a formal investigation.

The letter adds that specific authors on some of the papers have already admitted responsibility for “certain aspects of individual allegations”. However, the panel recommends that the formal investigation examine the conduct of all of the authors of each paper under scrutiny.

Allegations that images had been manipulated in four of Professor Morgan’s papers, published between 2006 and 2012, first appeared on the Science-fraud.org website in July. ……. 

A Cardiff University spokeswoman said: “Following evaluation of the allegations the initial screening panel has recommended that a Formal Investigation Panel be convened to consider a number of allegations in accordance with section six of the University’s Procedure for Dealing with Allegations of Misconduct in Academic Research.

“The university’s procedure is in line with guidance issued by the UK Research Integrity Office, to which the university subscribes. We need to await the outcome of the Formal Investigation Panel before offering any further comment.”

Tags: Cardiff Dean of Medicine, Cardiff University, Max Boyce, Prof B P Morgan, Rugby songs, Scientific misconduct, University College Cardiff, We all had doctors papers

This entry was posted on September 29, 2012 at 8:45 am and is filed under Academic misconduct, Medicine, scientific misconduct. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.