Bowing to pressure from scientists in animal cognition, Harvard University has confirmed that an internal investigation has found evidence of misconduct by , one of the field鈥檚 leading lights.
鈥淸I]t is with great sadness that I confirm that Professor Marc Hauser was found solely responsible, after a thorough investigation by a faculty investigating committee, for eight instances of scientific misconduct,鈥� says a emailed to Harvard faculty by , dean of arts and sciences. Smith also writes that Harvard has moved to 鈥渋mpose appropriate sanctions鈥�, but does not explain what action is being taken.
Unpublished studies
The letter, which was emailed to 快猫短视频 by Harvard鈥檚 press office, confirms that the investigation found problems with studies published in three papers. One, on the learning of 鈥済rammatical鈥� patterns of syllables by cotton-top tamarins (), is already being retracted. Another, on the interpretation of human gestures by rhesus macaques (), has been corrected with the results of new experiments; the fate of a third, on gesture interpretation by macaques, tamarins and chimps (), is still under discussion.
Advertisement
However, the letter also reveals that problems were found with five additional studies, which either did not lead to papers or which were corrected before being published.
鈥淲hile different issues were detected for the studies reviewed, overall, the experiments reported were designed and conducted, but there were problems involving data acquisition, data analysis, data retention, and the reporting of research methodologies and results,鈥� the letter says.
Unknown scope
Harvard鈥檚 failure to provide details of its three-year investigation, reportedly completed in January, attracted widespread criticism from scientists after the story broke last week.
The new statement is welcome, says , a specialist in primate cognition at Columbia University in New York. But without knowing more about what was covered by the investigation, researchers will remain unsure about how much of Hauser鈥檚 work to trust. 鈥淚t provides a little more information,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut it still doesn鈥檛 give an idea of the scope of the problem.鈥�
Apparently acknowledging criticism of Harvard鈥檚 secrecy about the case, Smith says in his letter that he is forming a faculty committee to consider whether any changes are necessary to the university鈥檚 policy on communicating the conclusions of misconduct cases 鈥� its rules on confidentiality had been cited by university officials as the reason for its silence until now.
Following Harvard鈥檚 announcement, Hauser also commented for the first time on the investigation. 鈥淚 am deeply sorry for the problems this case has caused to my students, my colleagues, and my university,鈥� he wrote, in a statement emailed to 快猫短视频. 鈥淚 have learned a great deal from this process and have made many changes in my own approach to research and in my lab鈥檚 research practices.鈥�
