The Government's Rush To Judgment On Bernard Fisher's Work, Reputation

The Government's Rush To Judgment On Bernard Fisher's Work, Reputation The Scientist, Vol:9, #23, pg.12 , November 27, 1995. Author: Eugene Garfield Most readers of The Scientist probably are familiar with the case of Bernard Fisher, the University of Pittsburgh professor who had directed the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) for more than two decades. Over that time, the 100 or so papers

Eugene Garfield

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But journalist John Crewdson of the Chicago Tribune reported on an Achilles' heel in NSABP. In this massive, multi-institutional, multinational, multimillion-dollar study funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Crewdson wrote in 1994, a Canadian member of the project had enrolled some 100 ineligible patients (J. Crewdson, Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1994, page 1). Although a reanalysis concluded that these records did not affect the project's significance or conclusions, Fisher was removed by NCI as the NSABP director.

According to a recent report by Dan Greenberg in Science and Government Report (25:1-3, Nov. 1, 1995), the government has added insult to injury in the Fisher case. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has placed "scientific misconduct" tags on the NSABP papers-some of which do not include the Canadian data-apparently under pressure from NCI. Donald Lindberg, NLM's director, acknowledges this as an extraordinary action, saying he knows of no other case ...

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