Universities unable to investigate misconduct of top staff – Bik

Research misconduct committed by senior academics should be investigated by independent experts because conflicts of interest make it impossible for universities to review complaints against their own staff, a leading integrity expert has argued.

Elisabeth Bik said the scandal involving Stanford University’s former president Marc Tessier-Lavigne had reinforced her belief that universities should commission external investigations when senior staff face allegations of research malpractice.

The Canadian neuroscientist resigned in 2023 after a student newspaper investigation uncovered numerous research integrity breaches. A subsequent university investigation concluded his work “fell below customary standards of scientific rigour and process” but did not constitute fraud, though it was later revealed many witnesses were not allowed to testify to the investigatory panel due to non-disclosure agreements.

“It’s not always good to have institutions investigate issue themselves,” Bik said in a talk organised by the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) on 3 June.

“If it’s a graduate student or postdoc, institutions should investigate themselves but if someone is higher-up- a professor or senior university manager, then the work should be done by someone on the outside,” said Bik, referencing the Stanford episode in which she helped to identify altered images in work co-authored by Tessier-Lavigne.

In many cases, there are “too many conflicts of interest to have this investigated internally”, said Bik, a Dutch-American microbiologist who has flagged almost 10,000 potentially suspect papers since 2015.

“There should be a group of semi-retired scientists to do this work,” suggested Bik, explaining the current reliance on full-time working professors often led to lengthy delays in investigations.

“Sometimes it is just too hard to get full-time employed professors together to form a committee and find the time to have a meeting – it might take months,” she said.

“I would leave this work to retired people – there are lots of people who would love to do this. I would like to do this work – and be paid for it,” said Bik.

These independent panels would help to address criticism that institutional investigations are not carried out in a robust or transparent way given the conflicts of interest and fear of inflicting reputational damage on an institution if complaints are upheld, explained Bik.

In the UK, universities are trusted to carry out their own investigations and there is no research ombudsman service to which complainants can appeal if they believe institutions have not followed their own investigation protocols.

Asked if she was surprised the UK did not have an external scrutiny body for research complaints similar to the US’s Office for Research Integrity, Bik said she “agreed with the criticism.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com