Harvard-linked cancer centre seeks retractions on fake data allegations

BOSTON - The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a leading Harvard Medical School-affiliated teaching centre, is seeking retractions of six studies and corrections on another 31 papers amid allegations that some of its senior researchers falsified data.

“We are committed to a culture of accountability and integrity,” Dr Barrett Rollins, the institute’s research integrity officer, said in a statement. “Every inquiry is examined fully to ensure the soundness of the scientific literature.”

Claims of data manipulation by senior researchers were published earlier in January in a blog post on the For Better Science website.

Biologist Sholto David, who blogs about research integrity, alleged that Dana-Farber chief executive Laurie Glimcher as well as senior researchers William Hahn, Irene Ghobrial and Kenneth Anderson manipulated data and images across dozens of papers. 

“The presence of image discrepancies in a paper is not evidence of an author’s intent to deceive,” Dr Rollins said.

“That conclusion can be drawn only after a careful, fact-based examination which is an integral part of our response. Our experience is that errors are often unintentional and do not rise to the level of misconduct.”

The authors and the institute were already reviewing some of the potential data errors before the blog was published and have taken action in the vast majority of cases, Dr Rollins added.

In some cases, the underlying data in question had been generated in other laboratories, he said, and investigations of three of the papers did not support the allegations of data anomalies.

Dana-Farber and its researchers have taken action on 37 of 38 manuscripts cited by Mr David as at Jan 21, Dr Rollins said. None of the authors responded immediately to requests for comment. 

While Harvard Medical School does not comment on individual circumstances, it is fully committed to safeguarding the integrity of its research, a spokesperson said in a statement.

“To that end, any concerns brought to our attention are reviewed thoroughly in accordance with our institutional policies and applicable regulations,” the spokesperson said.

The allegations add to the controversy Harvard University has been mired in for months.

Accusations of plagiarism were among factors that led

former president Claudine Gay to resign on Jan 2.

Those claims of failing to attribute others’ work properly followed criticism of her response to anti-Semitism at the university. 

Harvard last week said it

pursued a fair and rigorous process

to investigate allegations of plagiarism against Ms Gay.

The school released a description of its review process on Friday, when it was due to provide materials to a congressional committee investigating its handling of the plagiarism accusations.

More than 10,000 research articles were retracted in 2023 alone, a record, according to an analysis in the journal Nature.

Attention to errors in academic work at elite institutions has increased since former Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne resigned from his post in 2023 after questions arose about his biomedical research. 

In recent years, retractions of scientific papers have escalated faster than the number of published papers.

Organisations such as

Retraction Watch have brought increased scrutiny to the problem of misconduct in research

. Technology like software that can hunt for plagiarism and image analysis using artificial intelligence (AI) has also made it easier to spot fakes.

“While software advancements can reveal anomalies not previously detected, AI programs are not foolproof,” Dr Rollins said. BLOOMBERG