Illinois-based Surgisphere Corporation had a brief moment in the limelight this year following its infamous study of hydroxychloroquine. But the impact of the company’s deception reverberated across world.

The high-profile retractions of two COVID-19 studies stunned the scientific community earlier this year and prompted calls for reviews of how science is conducted, published, and acted upon. The warning signs had been there all along.

After several high-profile cases, the country’s government is creating a board to oversee and investigate all serious allegations of scientific misconduct.

An analysis of misconduct investigations finds first authors are more likely to commit transgressions, suggesting they should be held accountable for the integrity of the work.

The manuscript had amassed more than 50 comments about problematic figures and data on PubPeer.

A second investigation by the school concludes that David Latchman, also the head of Birkbeck, University of London, was not involved in the image manipulation found in papers he coauthored.

Anne Peyroche, who was removed as interim head of France’s National Center for Scientific Research in January, committed scientific misconduct, according to the French Academy of Sciences.

Olivier Voinnet and Patrice Dunoyer face consequences for misconduct that led to the retractions of numerous high-profile papers.

Cell biologist Irina Stancheva was dismissed in June 2017 after a scientific misconduct investigation.

The Karolinska Institute’s latest decision includes a guilty verdict for one of the whistleblowers who contributed to the investigation.

New allegations of fraud committed under the watch of geneticist David Latchman were made last year.

Ching-Shih Chen’s research involved anticancer therapeutics that were being tested in clinical trials.

Eight papers by Suchitra Sumitran-Holgersson, a tissue engineer at the University of Gothenburg, have been flagged for image manipulation.

The scientist was a member of a stem cell research team led by Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka. 

Anne Peyroche has been acting president of the French science organization since last October.

Ashutosh Tiwari, who falsely claimed to be affiliated with Linköping University, is also under investigation for alleged scientific misconduct and fraud.

This year’s controversial news included unethical behavior among politicians, a murder, and multiple accusations of gender discrimination and sexual harassment, in addition to the usual spate of research misconduct.

Investigations into cases of wrongdoing by professors are increasingly in the public eye. But are colleges and universities doing enough to deal with the problem?

The group calls for the retraction of six publications by surgeon Paolo Macchiarini regarding the synthetic trachea transplantations that led to the death of at least three patients.