Archive for the ‘Academic misconduct’ Category
November 15, 2011
Not entirely unexpected that Yoshiaki Ito would be exonerated by the National University of Singapore but the speed of the investigation and the exoneration is noteworthy.
ScienceInsider:
The National University of Singapore (NUS) announced today that it has found no evidence of research misconduct by Yoshiaki Ito, a high-profile cancer researcher accused of data fabrication. However, the finding does not resolve the underlying—and long-running—scientific dispute over whether a gene known as Runx3 is a tumor suppressor.
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Tags:National University of Singapore, Runx3, Scientific misconduct, Weizmann Institute of Science, Yoram Groner, Yoshiaki Ito
Posted in Academic misconduct, Singapore | Comments Off on National University of Singapore exonerates Yoshiaki Ito of misconduct
November 7, 2011
The saga of potential misconduct at the National University of Singapore continues to escalate with further questionable papers regularly being identified by “whistleblowers” to Abnormal Science (Joerg Zwirner).
But the investigations initiated by the University are not totally above criticism especially as Prof. Barry Haliwell the Vice President at the University and responsible for these investigations is himself facing allegations of self-plagiarism and is a co-author on some of the questionable papers. There is an urgent need for some outside participation in the investigations to ensure independence and impartiality. My current perception is that the objective of the investigation will over-ridingly be to save the reputation of the University (any by extension of the government of Singapore) and that the investigation committee will be heavily blinkered. Since the government has effectively been trying to short-cut its way to a scientific reputation by “buying in” researchers, there is little chance that the investigations – as they are set up now – will not be contaminated by government meddling.
As Abnormal Science comments:
A more stringent management of quality and integrity issues in experimental (medical ) research needs to take center stage at NUS. Vice president Prof. Halliwell is in charge of the Office of Research and Technology at NUS, and therefore responsible for driving the University’s research agenda. Unfortunately, he also appears to handle issues related to science integrity at NUS himself. This constellation constitutes an inacceptable accumulation of responsibilities and should be banned since it carries the potential for conflict of interest. Prof. Halliwell, you might want to take a leave of absence from your position as vice president until these issues (including the allegation of self-plagiarism) have been resolved.
Tags:Abnormal Science, National University of Singapore, NUS, Plagiarism, Professor Barry Haliwell, Scientific misconduct, Singapore
Posted in Academic misconduct, Science, scientific misconduct, Singapore | 1 Comment »
November 4, 2011
The status conferred by academic titles in the Czech Republic is almost as strong as in Germany. Whereas in Germany it is the title of “Doctor” which is most sought after by politicians – as a stamp of public acknowledgement that one is a “deep thinker” – even a Masters degree in the Czech Republic can lead to the title “Pani magistra” or literally “Mrs Master’s degree holder.”
Petty politicians appending academic titles to enhance their electoral chances is not of course so uncommon. What is surprising for me is that Prague and its citizens, who I think are extremely sophisticated and discerning in matters academic and who have a strong sense of the long academic traditions of the city, would be taken in by such nonsense.
And the mass-production of fake doctorates by the law faculty of the University of West Bohemia (ZČU) in Plzeň led to over 300,000 degree awards being audited in 2009! This even led to a Wikileaks cable from the US Embassy in Prague ( Wikileaks id #233660) in November 2009 about the scandal and reporting:
A joke is making the rounds: “What are you doing this weekend?” Answer: “Getting a law degree.”
Czech position now reports that yet another politician is accused of plagiarism – this time for a Master’s thesis.
Prague district mayor ‘plagiarized’ his master’s thesis
… Two prominent academics who separately examined the master’s thesis of Prague 11 mayor Dalibor Mlejnský (Civic Democrats, ODS), due to suspicions of plagiarism, say the majority of the paper was indeed copied verbatim — and almost completely lacked citation. Mlejnský’s thesis titled “The History of Charles University” was lifted from two books (Jacques LeGoff’s “Intellectuals in the Middle Ages” and, more obviously, volumes of “The History of Charles University” by various scholars over the centuries, according to the two academics, who had been asked by the state broadcaster to make the expert assessments.
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Tags:Czech Republic, degree-mill, fake degrees, Jan Kalvoda, Milan Jančík, Plagiarism, Plzeň, Prague, University of West Bohemia
Posted in Academic misconduct, Corruption, Czech Republic, Education, Politics | Comments Off on Plagiarising politicians and weekend Doctorates in the Czech Republic
November 1, 2011
David Held, who is currently Graham Wallas professor of political science at the LSE, has announced that he is leaving in January to take up a post at Durham University.
But he is leaving one step ahead of the reports on Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s funding of research at the LSE. and one on charges of plagiarism in his PhD thesis.
According to the Guardian, Held said in a statement “I will be taking up the positions of master of University College and chair of politics and international relations at the University of Durham from January. This move is being made for academic reasons and I look forward to the new avenues of research that this role will bring. I have many links to LSE which will be maintained in the years ahead.”
But Held who had very close links to
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Tags:David Held, Durham University, Graham Towl, Howard Davies, Libya, London School of Economics, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi
Posted in Academic misconduct, Business, Education, Libya, Politics | 1 Comment »
October 31, 2011
Social psychology is going to take a beating over the Diederik Stapel fraud. It provides ample fuel for the view that social psychology is no science but merely the half-baked opinions of narcissists and charlatans. Ego trips and TV appearances have governed the field rather than any scientific rigour.
The interim report of the investigation being carried out by the of Universities of Tilburg and Groningen which started in mid September is now out.
Diederik Stapel
The interim report (in Dutch) is here:
pdf Stapel interim-rapport
The extent of the fraud is breathtaking and the investigation is far from over. At least 30 papers have been found to contain fraudulent data, at least 14 doctoral theses that he supervised are compromised for using fabricated data and in all about 150 papers going back to 2004 are being investigated. Legal action is to be taken. This one is going down in the history books.
(Update! 1st November: Science Insider carries the story here)
Dutch News writes:
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Tags:Diederik Stapel, fraud, Groningen University, Social psychology, Social Sciences, Tilburg University
Posted in Academic misconduct, Ethics, Fraud, psychology, Science, Scientific Fraud, scientific misconduct | 4 Comments »
October 24, 2011
Update: 31st October 2011: Further dodgy papers are given in the next instalment from Abnormal Science.
Japanese Retraction Watch has also been on the case.
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Abnormal Science ( Joerg Zwirner) has 3 more examples of papers with some questionable images. This time the papers are from the Department of Physiology, National University of Singapore with 2 papers published in Blood and one in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The three papers tagged are:
1. Pervaiz S, Seyed MA, Hirpara JL, Clément MV, Loh KW.
Purified photoproducts of merocyanine 540 trigger cytochrome C release and caspase 8-dependent apoptosis in human leukemia and melanoma cells.
Blood. 1999 Jun 15;93(12):4096-108.
Department of Physiology, National University of Singapore; and the Oncology Research Institute, NUMI, Singapore
2. Hirpara JL, Seyed MA, Loh KW, Dong H, Kini RM, Pervaiz S.
Induction of mitochondrial permeability transition and cytochrome C release in the absence of caspase activation is insufficient for effective apoptosis in human leukemia cells.
Blood. 2000 Mar 1;95(5):1773-80.
Department of Physiology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
3. Hirpara JL, Clément MV, Pervaiz S.
Intracellular acidification triggered by mitochondrial-derived hydrogen peroxide is an effector mechanism for drug-induced apoptosis in tumor cells.
J Biol Chem. 2001 Jan 5;276(1):514-21.
Department of Physiology, National University of Singapore, Singapore
The two names common to all 3 papers are JL Hirpara and research supervisor Professor Shazib Pervaiz.
The NUS investigation committee has its work cut out with all the questionable papers they need to check out (See here and here).
As Abnormal Science puts it:
Their inquiry commissions might soon run out of unbiased members. NUS should consider to accept assistance from abroad to clean up the mess.
And it seems to be truly a mess covering a number of departments which indicates a prevailing culture and not just some isolated incident of wrongdoing.
Tags:Abnormal Science, image manipulation, Joerg Zwirner, National University of Singapore, Plagiarism, Scientific misconduct, Singapore
Posted in Academic misconduct, Ethics, scientific misconduct, Singapore | 2 Comments »
October 22, 2011
Once upon a time I was a post-doc at University College Cardiff which has a Royal Charter dating from 1883 and which was part of the University of Wales, Cardiff until 2004 when it became Cardiff University. I have fond memories of Cardiff since it was with Cardiff as a base that my colleagues ensured my education on the finer points of rugby and Welsh pubs and Dylan Thomas and rugby songs. So it was a matter of some regret for me to hear that the current University of Wales was to be abolished because of wrong-doings at one of its accredited colleges.
The University of Wales was a federal university founded in 1893 with accredited institutions throughout Wales, including the universities of Glyndŵr, Newport, Swansea Metropolitan and Trinity Saint David. It accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students but following a visa fraud at one of its accredited colleges, Rayat London College, it no longer exists. At the time of its closure, the Chancellor of the University of Wales was HRH the Prince of Wales and the Pro-Chancellor was the Archbishop of Wales, Dr. Barry Morgan. Professor Marc Clement was President and the Vice-Chancellor was Professor Medwin Hughes.
It is not the first time that the techniques of academic cheating and fake degrees have been found to have been exported from India to colleges around the world.
THES:The Rayat London College which offered courses validated by the University of Wales has been linked to an alleged scam that helped foreign students to cheat their way to qualifications. The BBC found a lecturer from Rayat College London explaining to students how to cheat in exams and how to deceive the UK Border Agency. …. The scam would have allowed students to complete a 15-month course in under a week by cheating in exams. …. The college has suspended a lecturer, registrar and admissions officer, and said it dissociated itself from any wrongdoing and had referred the matter to the police.
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Tags:Rayat College London, Surya Medicherla, University of Wales, visa scam
Posted in Academic misconduct, Education, Fraud | Comments Off on Visa Scam at Rayat London College lays low the University of Wales
October 21, 2011
The Hausergate affair seemed to have reached a sort of resolution with Marc Hauser’s resignation from Harvard – but it has come back to life with accusations from Gilbert Harman, a philosophy Professor at Princeton that Hauser’s book Moral Minds may have “stolen ideas” without sufficient attribution from the 2000 doctoral thesis of John Mikhail, a graduate student at Cornell University who is now a law professor at Georgetown University.
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Tags:Gilbert Harman, Harvard University, hausergate, John Mikhail, marc hauser, Princeton
Posted in Academic misconduct, Ethics, Social Science | Comments Off on Marc Hauser now accused of “theft of ideas”
October 20, 2011
Skeletons seem to be tumbling out of the Singapore academic closet thick and fast as one allegation follows hot on the heels of the last. Previous revelations are here, and here.
1. Abnormal Science reports that another whistleblower has appeared and has pointed out image irregularities (image manipulations?) in two more publications, both from the Department of Pharmacology, National University of Singapore. Abnormal Science.
2. From the Straits Times (h/t as pointed out by an Abnormal Science reader) it is reported that a famous cancer scientist in Singapore is having his work challenged. If Prof. Yoshiaki Ito’s work is found to be flawed then some 200 other publications based on his results would be thrown into doubt.
The Times article is behind a pay wall but Asia News Net carries the article (more…)
Tags:Abnormal Science, Agency for Science Technology and Research, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Weizmann Institute of Science, Yoram Groner, Yoshiaki Ito
Posted in Academic misconduct, Ethics, Science, scientific misconduct, Singapore | 2 Comments »
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