National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday announced the results of its first-stage investigation into alleged academic fraud, implicating professor Kuo Min-liang (郭明良).
The results tie Kuo, NTU Hospital vice superintendent Lin Ming-tsan (林明燦) and former post-doctorate researcher Cha Shih-ting (查詩婷) to breaches of academic integrity.
The university released results from a preliminary investigation into two recently retracted papers on cancer research submitted by Kuo’s research team to the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 2008 and Nature Cell Biology last year.
Lin and Cha, a student of Kuo, were the main authors of the 2008 and last year’s papers respectively, while Kuo was the corresponding author for both.
NTU vice president Kuo Tei-wei (郭大維) said the preliminary results determined that Kuo Min-liang, who led both studies, had failed in his duties to provide guidance and supervision to his teams and had “clearly” breached academic ethics.
A host of erroneous images pervaded last year’s paper, indicating that the work was not the result of an “honest mistake,” he said.
Cha, as the paper’s main author, should also be held accountable, he said.
Lin’s contributions to the 2008 article were insufficient to justify his role as the main author, which is also a clear breach of academic integrity, Kuo Tei-wei said.
He apologized twice on behalf of the university over the trouble the academic scandal has caused.
An investigation committee comprising faculty members from the College of Life Sciences and the College of Medicine sifted through papers on online academic forum PubPeer that Kuo Min-liang’s name was linked to and located 16 that they deemed potentially problematic.
Six of the remaining articles abided by academic ethics, while eight — four of which NTU president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) coauthored — required further investigation, Kuo Tei-wei said.
Responding to media queries on why the investigation results on Yang were not disclosed, Kuo Tei-wei said the committee started with the two retracted papers and that investigations into the work of Yang and other coauthors was not yet completed.
The committee is questioning academics involved with writing the papers and comparing their testimonies to determine whether they intentionally presented faulty results, as well as whether Kuo Min-liang had instigated his team members to forge research findings.
An allegation that Kuo Min-liang accepted bribes totaling NT$6.73 million (US$212,961) from NTU Hospital physician Yen Men-luh (嚴孟祿) in exchange for Yen to be listed as a coauthor on Kuo Min-liang’s articles was still being investigated.
Despite having said that he would resign in November last year, Kuo Min-liang later told the university that he would retire, and since last month has not responded to the university’s queries about his plans.
As investigations into academic fraud typically take six months, the university hopes that second and third-stage investigations will be completed in May, Kuo Tei-wei said.
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