From Kortney Lockey, ValleyNewsLive.com, August 25, 2023
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (Valley News Live) - A national watchdog group has
filed a Federal Research Misconduct complaint against University of North
Dakota staff, regarding two fraudulent federally funded articles in
scientific journals that had to be retracted for “image manipulation.”
SAEN, a national watchdog nonprofit that investigates animal abuse and
illegal activities at U.S. research facilities, is alleging the manipulation
of images representing experimental data in both publications is Research
Misconduct because the image manipulation equates with falsification of the
data.
Falsification of data fits the legal meaning of Research Misconduct, as
defined by the Office of Research Integrity, charged SAEN, as “manipulating
research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or
results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research
record.”
SAEN added the authors of the journal articles were unable to provide the
original data when asked by the publishers to clarify issues with the
images.
They allege the grants which funded the two retracted articles provided more
than $500,000 annually to UND, and were responsible for the deaths of dozens
of animals.