WIKIMEDIA, DADEROTAfter a lengthy investigation, the University of Tokyo concluded yesterday (August 1) that one of its foremost cell biologists, Yoshinori Watanabe, fabricated images in five of his group’s research papers, according to a Science news report.
The investigation began in August of 2016 and was prompted by allegations of misconduct in 22 research papers. The committee leading the investigation cleared five out of the six laboratories involved, determining that these groups were guilty of “minor inconsistencies” in their papers, but nothing more, according to the news report. Watanabe’s group, on the other hand, was charged with manipulating graphs and images in his prominent papers, some of which were published in Nature and Science.
Watanabe acknowledged these problems in June by posting a detailed series of corrections on his web page, citing that mistaken cell lines, improper procedures, and flawed assay protocols were to blame for the image inconsistencies, Science reported that month. “We believe that none of the errors affect the ...
