Dutch Professor Is Found to Have Committed Extensive Academic Fraud

A Dutch scholar whose work has been widely published in academic journals and covered in the mainstream press faked the data in “several dozen” academic publications, according to an investigation by his university. The extent of the fraud carried out by Diederik Stapel, a professor of psychology, was deemed “very substantial” by the Tilburg University committee that investigated the matter, and Mr. Stapel is also being investigated by committees at the Universities of Amsterdam and Groningen, where he previously held positions.

Mr. Stapel was found to have fabricated data and manipulated analyses in work over an extended period of time, until his actions were called into questions when “three young researchers from the department concerned voiced their suspicions about the forgery of data by Mr. Stapel to the head of department at the end of August 2011,” according to the report. The investigation “has as yet found no signs that co-authors knowingly cooperated with Mr. Stapel in tampering with data, nor that they were aware, or could or should have been aware, of any tampering with data,” the report says.