Numerous research papers from Harvard found filled with errors and false data
The modern basis of medical research in the dark age
Our bankrupt “elite” academia: It appears that Harvard’s former president, Claudine Gay, was not the exception but the rule at Harvard. Much if not almost all of Gay’s meager published work has now been found to have been plagerized from others. Now we have news that numerous papers published by four senior researchers (and managers) at Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are either being retracted or revised because of “allegations of data falsification.”
In the emailed statement to The Crimson, DFCI Research Integrity Officer Barrett J. Rollins wrote that six manuscripts have retractions underway and 31 are being corrected. The corrections come amid claims of data manipulation against DFCI President and CEO Laurie H. Glimcher ’72, Executive Vice President and COO William C. Hahn ’87, Senior Vice President for Experimental Medicine Irene M. Ghobrial, and Harvard Medical School professor Kenneth C. Anderson. The allegations of misconduct were first compiled and publicized in a Jan. 2 blog post by data sleuth Sholto David.
In the statement, Rollins wrote that David contacted DFCI with allegations of data manipulation in 57 manuscripts. According to Rollins, 38 were articles in which DFCI researchers “have primary responsibility for the potential data errors.”
You can read David’s original blog post describing this very bad research work here. Many of these errors appear to cases where the wrong images were used, or data from one picture was cut and pasted into another to produce fake results. Though the main targets for criticism are these major figures, the papers described by David as containing errors or data manipulation include many other co-authors, numbering in the many dozens. Yet none of these so-called top medical researchers took the time to make sure the images in the papers were correct. Instead, it appears some made an effort to falsify the data and told no one else.
All however are part of the upper class of big-name medical researchers, part of a community that receives billions in NIH research grants to do this shoddy work.
Moreover, it appears that this sloppiness (or malfeasance) in research work is long-standing and systemic. The papers named were published from 1999 to 2017, and involve all these researchers multiple times. For example, data forgeries were found on three papers co-authored by Glimcher, 12 by Hahn, 10 by Ghobrial, and 16 by Anderson.
As usual, the Harvard spokesman Rollins mouthed the usual blather in defense of the university.
“We are committed to a culture of accountability and integrity,” he added. “Every inquiry about research integrity is examined fully.”
Obviously Harvard has not cared, especially at its upper levels. These are the so-called elites at this cancer research facility, holding important positions running the institution. Yet they are either incompetent, repeatedly allowing errors to slip through that should have been spotted beforehand, or purposely falsified the data in order to get their papers published.
The evidence of a corrupt and bankrupt academia first became obvious in the 2000s in connection with the climate change and the climategate emails. The emails showed a complete disinterest in the facts by a large cadre of top big-name climate scientists. Instead, the scientists conspired together to falsify the data to prove global warming was happening, while using their power to destroy the careers of any scientists who questioned their work.
When the science community circled the wagons to protect these corrupt scientists, it spelled the death knell for all of American high-quality science. In the two decades since this poison has spread throughout many fields, with the recent allegations at Harvard only a tip of the iceberg.
At this moment it appears a house-cleaning will hardly be enough. It appears instead we literally need to throw the baby out with the bath water. The baby itself is poisoned and dying, and the only way to fix things might be to start anew, with new institutions run by a completely new set of individuals. For certain, we cannot trust the work coming from these hacks.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The modern basis of medical research in the dark age
Our bankrupt “elite” academia: It appears that Harvard’s former president, Claudine Gay, was not the exception but the rule at Harvard. Much if not almost all of Gay’s meager published work has now been found to have been plagerized from others. Now we have news that numerous papers published by four senior researchers (and managers) at Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are either being retracted or revised because of “allegations of data falsification.”
In the emailed statement to The Crimson, DFCI Research Integrity Officer Barrett J. Rollins wrote that six manuscripts have retractions underway and 31 are being corrected. The corrections come amid claims of data manipulation against DFCI President and CEO Laurie H. Glimcher ’72, Executive Vice President and COO William C. Hahn ’87, Senior Vice President for Experimental Medicine Irene M. Ghobrial, and Harvard Medical School professor Kenneth C. Anderson. The allegations of misconduct were first compiled and publicized in a Jan. 2 blog post by data sleuth Sholto David.
In the statement, Rollins wrote that David contacted DFCI with allegations of data manipulation in 57 manuscripts. According to Rollins, 38 were articles in which DFCI researchers “have primary responsibility for the potential data errors.”
You can read David’s original blog post describing this very bad research work here. Many of these errors appear to cases where the wrong images were used, or data from one picture was cut and pasted into another to produce fake results. Though the main targets for criticism are these major figures, the papers described by David as containing errors or data manipulation include many other co-authors, numbering in the many dozens. Yet none of these so-called top medical researchers took the time to make sure the images in the papers were correct. Instead, it appears some made an effort to falsify the data and told no one else.
All however are part of the upper class of big-name medical researchers, part of a community that receives billions in NIH research grants to do this shoddy work.
Moreover, it appears that this sloppiness (or malfeasance) in research work is long-standing and systemic. The papers named were published from 1999 to 2017, and involve all these researchers multiple times. For example, data forgeries were found on three papers co-authored by Glimcher, 12 by Hahn, 10 by Ghobrial, and 16 by Anderson.
As usual, the Harvard spokesman Rollins mouthed the usual blather in defense of the university.
“We are committed to a culture of accountability and integrity,” he added. “Every inquiry about research integrity is examined fully.”
Obviously Harvard has not cared, especially at its upper levels. These are the so-called elites at this cancer research facility, holding important positions running the institution. Yet they are either incompetent, repeatedly allowing errors to slip through that should have been spotted beforehand, or purposely falsified the data in order to get their papers published.
The evidence of a corrupt and bankrupt academia first became obvious in the 2000s in connection with the climate change and the climategate emails. The emails showed a complete disinterest in the facts by a large cadre of top big-name climate scientists. Instead, the scientists conspired together to falsify the data to prove global warming was happening, while using their power to destroy the careers of any scientists who questioned their work.
When the science community circled the wagons to protect these corrupt scientists, it spelled the death knell for all of American high-quality science. In the two decades since this poison has spread throughout many fields, with the recent allegations at Harvard only a tip of the iceberg.
At this moment it appears a house-cleaning will hardly be enough. It appears instead we literally need to throw the baby out with the bath water. The baby itself is poisoned and dying, and the only way to fix things might be to start anew, with new institutions run by a completely new set of individuals. For certain, we cannot trust the work coming from these hacks.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I wonder how much of this behavior is driven by the ‘publish or perish’ culture in academia?
“Every inquiry about research integrity is examined fully.”
A plain interpretation is that the ‘inquiry’ (i.e. the inquirer) is ‘examined fully’, but *not* the research. I have no doubt this is a true statement.
Publish does not mean original thought or original research. They did hope that it at least meant original writing but that went away with the internet.
At least with the internet we can compare their writing with what they copied it from far easier than we used to be able to.
– At least with the internet we can compare their writing with what they copied it from far easier than we used to be able to.
And now ChatGTP and other large language model AI platforms can do it automatically. With such tools all of the. plagiarists are destined to be exposed, so this is only the beginning of what will almost surely be an ugly and entertaining implosion of Ivy League academic and research superiority, and the fall of MANY imposters.
Even better, such tools effectively obsolete the ability to plagiarize now as well, so going forward future students and researchers will need to actually show some merit in their work. Just like they are supposed to!
Robert wrote: “These are the so-called elites at this cancer research facility, holding important positions running the institution. Yet they are either incompetent, repeatedly allowing errors to slip through that should have been spotted beforehand, or purposely falsified the data in order to get their papers published.”
There goes our hope for a cure for cancer in our lifetimes. With papers like this, real scientists could be barking up the wrong tree for years before they realize the problem. The Wright Brothers had a similar problem from bogus data. They finally had to do that work all over again with their own wind tunnel.
Except this time lives are on the line with bogus medical research. Economies and prosperities are on the line with bogus climate research. Society is on the line with bogus social and psychological research.
What if NASA and the FAA were this sloppy in their research and their accident investigations? Or maybe that is why aviation safety didn’t improve very quickly until the airlines themselves decided to take charge of their own safety, back around 1980.
There is a cost to society due to papers with such poor workmanship.
One should be aware that this crisis has been around for several years now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis
I first hear of it in a publication, in Nature Magazine I can’t find anymore, but it was the precursor to this one from 2016,
https://www.nature.com/articles/533452a , which is fine, because this article was the one that really lifted the lid on the problem, which is ongoing. Here is another in Nature magazine from 2018
https://www.nature.com/collections/prbfkwmwvz
I am hoping that someone besides me can pick this torch up and wave it. Science, for the most part isn’t Science anymore and the degradation has been going on, I think, since before I was born in 1955.