Tokyo, 24 September, /AJMEDIA/
Hokkaido University has said that a former researcher at the university’s chemical reaction research institute fabricated data in four of his papers, including one published in the journal Science in 2020.
Ronald Lazo Reyes, who had worked as a specially appointed assistant professor at the institute under professor Masaya Sawamura, was involved in 519 counts of fabrication and 317 instances of falsification of data, according to a report released by the university’s research misconduct investigation committee on Wednesday.
Specifically, the committee cited numerous unnatural gaps and signs of data manipulation in charts. The research was related to the study of artificial catalysts to facilitate chemical reactions.
The university launched a preliminary probe in April 2022 after receiving tip-offs on alleged data tampering related to the papers, for which research was conducted between October 2015 and March 2020. The full-scale investigation started in June 2022 and examined the work of five researchers in and outside the university listed as co-authors of the papers. All but Reyes and Sawamura were judged not to be responsible for misconduct.
All of the four papers have been retracted. Reyes has admitted to “processing” data from his experiments but denied intentionally altering it, according to the report. He claimed to have copied data he had logged in notebooks that were different from official lab experiment notebooks, but could not produce the materials to back up his claim, the committee said.
Sawamura, the corresponding author in all of the four papers, was not involved in the data manipulation himself, but was negligent in his duty as Reyes’ supervisor when it came to confirming the validity of the data, the committee said.
Reyes, a Filipino national, resigned from the post in May 2022 and is currently associate professor at National University in the Philippines. Since he has already resigned, Hokkaido University is unable to take disciplinary action against him, the report said. Reyes did not respond to an email request for comment.
National University said that it takes the matter seriously and is currently investigating it.
“A thorough internal investigation is being conducted and appropriate actions will be taken in accordance with our institutional policies,” the communications office of the Manila-based private university said.
Takao Masuda, executive vice president of research management at Hokkaido University, apologized for the misconduct in a news conference on Wednesday. The university said it will decide on appropriate disciplinary action against Sawamura, and will step up research ethics education to prevent a recurrence of similar problems.
