The University of Kentucky announced Friday that a year-long internal investigation found two cancer research professors and a staff researcher have falsified or fabricated data.
If they don’t resign, the university said it will initiate firing procedures for researchers Xianglin Shi and Zhuo Zhang. UK has already terminated staff research scientist Donghern Kim. The faculty labs were shut down Thursday. According to the university, the two researchers received funding of $1.4 million in 2018 and 2019. According to the website of the National Institutes of Health, UK received a total of about $132 million in funding during the 2018 fiscal year.
According to a press release from UK, federal funding agencies, such as the National Institute of Health, have also been notified of the university’s findings.
The papers were on topics surrounding toxicity, biology and cancer. Overall, the university found that among numerous irregularities there were particular problems in seven grant proposals and 13 scholarly papers. UK is seeking a retraction of the papers in question.
According to the full report, mistakes by the researchers include not having original data to back up their conclusions.
Ivan Oransky runs the group RetractionWatch which encourages transparency and integrity in science. He says such retractions are not uncommon but are most often out of public view.
His website tallies about 1,400 such retractions a year. He said it is too early to say whether the university will face repercussions. Grants are sometimes, but rarely, asked to be refunded to the government.
Oransky said RetractionWatch had contacted UK officials last October after three UK research papers on the impact of toxic chemicals were retracted.
University Spokesperson Jay Blanton said the university’s highest priority is maintaining the integrity of its research.
“This speaks to how serious the university takes a matter like this. This is rare, but when people do not adhere to our standards the university is going to act forcefully and without hesitation to find out what happened. We’ll take steps to correct it and we’ll take steps to do what we can to ensure it doesn’t reoccur,"
The professors have been denied access to their lab equipment, have been told not to return to campus or contact other university personnel unless in need of medical care.
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