Media Coverage About SAEN Stop Animal Exploitation Now

OU continuing probe of former researcher

 

From Kathryn McNutt, The Journal Record, May 30, 2023

The University of Oklahoma continues to investigate data falsification by a former researcher but takes issue with claims made by a national watchdog nonprofit that it failed to ensure research was conducted legally, OU spokeswoman April Sandefer said Monday.

The group Stop Animal Exploitation Now issued a news release May 17 stating the OU Health Sciences Center “admitted to research fraud and was forced to retract an animal research article in a scientific journal.” SAEN said it just filed a complaint with the federal Office of Research Integrity over the article, calling for an investigation into OUHSC’s research program. It was the group’s third such complaint against OUHSC.

“Any claims that the University of Oklahoma has a ‘serious research fraud/misconduct problem’ or that OU has ‘admit[ted] to a 3rd case of research falsification’ are false. Research integrity is core to our purpose as a research-intensive institution, and research misconduct is not tolerated at OU,” the university responded in a statement.

The three research papers referenced by SAEN all can be tied to the same corresponding author, a researcher who has not been employed by OU since 2015, Sandefer said. She would not confirm the name of the researcher nor whether the person voluntarily left employment because “OU’s investigation and process are ongoing.”

“The university itself had absolutely no role in the research misconduct. The researcher and retracted publications are unrelated to patient care or the quality of our health system,” according to the statement.

OU officials said the research at issue was completed between 2005 and 2015, and the papers that were retracted were published in peer-reviewed journals between 2006 and 2017.

Dr. Ming-Hui Zou – a medical doctor and scientist listed on all three papers – was the George Lynn Cross Professor and Warren Endowed Chair in Diabetes Research at OUHSC and vice chair for research in the Department of Medicine from 2005 to 2015.

A May 2020 article in Retraction Watch reported Zou, who was at the time the associate vice president for research at Georgia State University and founding director of that university’s Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine, had just had his 10th paper retracted.

Zou could not be reached for comment.

Sandefer would not say how OU learned of the data falsification concerns.

“After conducting a thorough investigation into allegations of research misconduct against this former researcher, in 2021 the university found evidence of data falsification,” according to the statement. “The university notified the journals of the findings and requested retractions.”

The most recent retraction was published May 15 in the journal Diabetes involving research that it published 10 years ago. It stated: “At the request of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), the above-cited article has been retracted. An OUHSC investigation into the integrity of the data presented in the article concluded that multiple Western blot images were falsified.”

Diabetes previously printed a retraction notice for another of the papers in August 2021, while the Journal of Molecular Endocrinology published a retraction notice for the third paper in January 2021. The editor noted they first were made aware of concerns about the article in June 2019 and asked OUHSC to investigate after correspondence with the authors failed to resolve the concern.

“These retractions follow standard due process following such investigations and are consistent with OU’s policies,” officials said in the statement. “OU has acted and will continue to act in accordance with the university’s strict policies and procedures for investigating allegations of research misconduct.”

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