A recent investigation at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute into data integrity has led to a series of retractions. The most recent retraction involved a 2006 scientific paper co-authored by Laurie Glimcher, the institute’s president and CEO.
The retraction notice was published in the journal Science and stated that discrepancies had been discovered in key scientific images, causing the authors to lose confidence in key figures in the study. Despite opposition from the study’s lead author, the decision was made to withdraw.
This is just one of more than 50 articles co-authored by four of Dana-Farber’s top researchers that have come under scrutiny. The concern was originally brought to light in a January blog post by scientific researcher Sholto David. Some of the problems were identified on PubPeer, a website dedicated to solving data problems in research, while others were published several years earlier. Many concerns revolved around duplicate images of experimental results, which could potentially affect the scientific conclusions drawn from the data.