A recent investigation at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has led to a series of retractions, including one involving a 2006 Science paper co-authored by Laurie Glimcher, the institute’s president and CEO. The retraction notice was published in Science and stated that discrepancies in key scientific images have been detected, causing the authors to lose confidence in the study’s key figures. Despite opposition from the study’s lead author, the decision to retract was made.
This retraction is just one of more than 50 articles co-authored by four of Dana-Farber’s top researchers that have come under scrutiny. These concerns were initially brought to light in a January blog post by scientific investigator Sholto David. Some of the issues were identified on PubPeer, a website dedicated to addressing data problems in research, while others had been posted several years prior. Many of the concerns revolved around duplicated images of experimental results, potentially impacting the scientific conclusions drawn from the data.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has acknowledged that there may be other issues with data integrity within its research community and has taken steps to address them. The institute has established an internal review committee to investigate any potential misconduct and has implemented new policies and procedures for handling research data. However, some scientists worry that these measures may not be enough to prevent future instances of misconduct and that more needs to be done to ensure transparency and accountability in research.