2 Scientists Are Penalized for Research Misconduct

The federal Office of Research Integrity has found that two scientists engaged in research misconduct on studies financed with grants from the National Institutes of Health. According to notices published today in the Federal Register, Mahesh Visvanathan, a research assistant professor at the University of Kansas, “intentionally and knowingly” plagiarized “large amounts of text” from three published papers and an abstract; and Jennifer Jamieson, a former graduate student at the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical University, falsified data in a grant application, an article submitted to a journal, and several presentations. The Visvanathan case appears connected with a similar finding on another Kansas researcher by the research-integrity office, known as ORI, in December. The notices state that the scientists have agreed to have their research supervised, if supported by the Public Health Service, for two or three years and to exclude themselves from serving as advisers to the service, among other things. Ms. Jamieson “neither admits nor denies ORI’s finding of scientific misconduct,” the notice says.