Fake-O-Meat by Ali Khademhosseini

At For Better Science, we take Veganuary seriously. Let’s celebrate a great American scientist whose lab-grown meat business will revolutionise the way we see cows and burgers: Professor Ali Khademhosseini, founder of the California-based company OMEAT.

As seems to be a tradition in the lab-grown meat business, the entrepreneurs hail from regenerative medicine where they spent years announcing to create living human organs ready for transplantation, usually from “stem cells”, often with the use of 3D bioprining and nanopolymers. Dr Khademhosseini is no exception:

The company’s product, “Coming soon to a restaurant & grocery store near you“, is “Omeat ground beef. It looks, cooks, and tastes just like real beef because, well, it is. Only better.” One of Omeat’s partners is Tyson Foods, US biggest meat producer.

Khademhosseini likes to paint himself as a genius saint who not only solved the organ shortage problem but also the climate change and everything else:

“I developed multiple techniques for controlling the behavior of patient-derived cells to engineer artificial tissues and cell-based therapies.
As I continued to delve deeper into this space, I also started to research more about the environmental impacts that conventional beef has on our planet and society at large. As I did my concern grew. […]
Through this process of personal interest and scientific inquiry, my focus shifted from tissue engineering to working on cultivated ground beef. From this, Omeat was born.”

Let’s see then what amazing scientific breakthroughs allowed Khademhosseini to grow beef in his Omeat vats.

Important notes: the investigation into Khademhosseini’s papers was done almost entirely by Elisabeth Bik. The author of this text is a vegan, which is obviously a major COI discrediting everything.

This paper was done in collaboration with the Israeli scientist Shulamit Levenberg, who not only is deep into lab-grown meat business herself, via her own company Aleph Farms (with the help of some russians and the International Space Station!), she also used her degenerative medicine skills to cure diabetes, grow ears and make the lame walk, or so the news celebrate her:

The last author and MIT professor Robert Langer is a God-like figure in USA. In 2009 he was celebrated by Nature for “Running one of the biggest academic labs in America“, via his Blackberry no less. Back then, Langer employed “more than 80 people, has authored in excess of 1,000 papers and holds more than 300 patents with almost as many pending.“

Ali Khademhosseini, Kahp Y Suh , Jen M Yang , George Eng , Judy Yeh , Shulamit Levenberg, Robert Langer Layer-by-layer deposition of hyaluronic acid and poly-L-lysine for patterned cell co-cultures Biomaterials (2004) doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2003.10.033 

Khademhosseini replied on PubPeer and offered to “repeat these experiments and provide updated data“. He then hinted that his coauthor Kahp Y Suh must have faked that figure and smuggled it into the paper. Also Langer pointed the finger at Suh in his email to me. In this regard it is noteworthy that Suh can’t speak for himself because in 2013 he drowned in the sea during an ISGMA conference in Hawaii under unclear circumstances. It is indeed easy to blame your dead colleague and mentee, but it can backfire, ask Irun Cohen.

Without pointing at Suh, Khademhosseini and Langer announced to “work with the authors, journal and publisher and others to ensure that the appropriate action is taken“:

Kahp Y. Suh , Hyunsik Yoon , Hong H. Lee , Ali Khademhosseini, Robert Langer Solventless ordering of colloidal particles through application of patterned elastomeric stamps under pressure Applied Physics Letters (2004) doi: 10.1063/1.1795362 

Dead man’s curse again?

Kahp Y. Suh , Jiehyun Seong , Ali Khademhosseini, Paul E. Laibinis, Robert Langer A simple soft lithographic route to fabrication of poly(ethylene glycol) microstructures for protein and cell patterning Biomaterials (2004) doi: 10.1016/s0142-9612(03)00543-x 

No Suh to blame on this paper though, yet the duplications are of very similar nature:

Ali Khademhosseini, Judy Yeh , George Eng , Jeffrey Karp , Hirokazu Kaji , Jeffrey Borenstein, Omid C. Farokhzad, Robert Langer Cell docking inside microwells within reversibly sealed microfluidic channels for fabricating multiphenotype cell arrays Lab on a Chip (2005) doi: 10.1039/b508096g 

With no Suh to blame, Khademhosseini and Langer explained that the duplications are perfectly normal because the surface of the microchannels was “sometimes not fully smooth“, thus “the repetitiveness in the image may be due to these defects in the surface that we used.” Bik retorted with: “Your reply does not make any sense.”

This by Langer and Khademhosseini has a very special co-author: Joseph Vacanti, who is the brother of the infamous STAP fraudster Charles Vacanti. In 2015, Joe Vacanti teamed up with the company Harvard Apparatus/Biostage to design a plastic oesophagus for human transplants. That company used to be the key partner of Paolo Macchiarini and provided the deadly plastic trachea.

Here is their common paper in PNAS, “Contributed by Robert Langer“, the National Academy member:

Ali Khademhosseini, Robert Langer, Jeffrey Borenstein, Joseph P. Vacanti Microscale technologies for tissue engineering and biology Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2006) doi: 10.1073/pnas.0507681102 

Khademhosseini and Langer blamed the academy journal:

“It appears that the journal changed the image that we submitted to them to remove the white background in B.   Thus they repeated those patterns immediately next to it.  Please note that this is what we submitted: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/u9wq5ckwjkwwwotxhngxq/Figure-4.tif?rlkey=dvwpywnwxwp4yqiwie5ihf3g3&st=2wa16erk&dl=0 They changed it in the galleys. Which is here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t9mjo0304i5ojp160q9hd/PNAS-proof.pdf?rlkey=a0gn6aj8b2llpxjlxljoh9nif&st=gv9is78d&dl=0“

A very similar situation here:

Junji Fukuda , Ali Khademhosseini, Judy Yeh , George Eng, Jianjun Cheng, Omid C. Farokhzad, Robert Langer Micropatterned cell co-cultures using layer-by-layer deposition of extracellular matrix components Biomaterials (2006) doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2005.09.015 

Also here, Khademhosseini and Langer announced on PubPeer:

“The figures have been edited by the journal. Please see here for our submitted figures. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qvjvivnyxfm8dih999dt5/BIOMAT-S-05-01183.pdf?rlkey=x1bequjb5vt2x3zbas2exyj0m&st=01ehyw6t&dl=0“

Now, that is probably even partially true. Although hard to believe that not only Elsevier, but even the proceedings journal of US National Academy of Science would do something like this behind authors’ backs.

But if someone among the journal staff or maybe the authors themselves did this “corner clone” editing in Photoshop merely to match the journal’s format of labelling, it was probably because the authors never had the original, unmarked figures in the first place. I discuss the practice here:

In his email to me, Langer (who has more papers on PubPeer, not just with Khademhosseini) announced:

“In all cases we are going to attempt to reproduce the data and to inform the appropriate journals of these issues and make corrections where appropriate.“

By the way, Langer later on acted as handling editor of Khademhoseini’s papers. Here in PNAS for example, “Edited by Robert Langer“:

Yaqian Li , Wei Liu , Fei Liu , Yang Zeng , Simin Zuo , Siyu Feng , Chunxiao Qi , Bingjie Wang , Xiaojun Yan , Ali Khademhosseini , Jing Bai , Yanan Du Primed 3D injectable microniches enabling low-dosage cell therapy for critical limb ischemia Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2014) doi: 10.1073/pnas.1411295111 

The last author Yanan Du, now professor at Tsinghua University in China, expressed “our gratitude” and explained that the figure is supposed to be like this, but announced “A corrigendum addressing this mislabeling will be submitted to PNAS.“

Also worth noting is that Langer’s main interests were less in running a enormous factory-like lab but in shilling for pharma industry, his Conflicts of Interest statement in 2023 runs at two full pages:

Yes, also for Levenberg’s Aleph Farms and a certain Terasaki Institute in Los Angeles, California of which Khademhosseini is the CEO. The Terasaki Institute is a tax-exempt “non-profit” family business, where very conveniently the research team of Omeat is based.

At his Terasaki Institute, Khademhosseini grows living tissues, whole organs and probably whole postdocs from stem cells on nanofabricated scaffolds, revolutionising science, medicine and everything. which was celebrated in Forbes in 2022:

“The Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) operating three research facilities with its original base working with UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), is leading the world across multiple domains. The non-profit, founded by the pioneering work of the renowned Dr. Paul Terasaki, continues his legacy for biomedical innovation. As noted on the TIBI legacy page, “The Terasaki Institute will continue the work of Dr. Terasaki to address the barriers to long-term success in the field of organ transplantation. […}]

Ali brings a remarkable history of accomplishment and continuing notable contributions to biomedical innovation to TIBI. Annually for the past five years, he has been selected by Thomson Reuters as one of the World’s Most Influential Minds as a Highly Cited Researcher. Dr. Khademhosseini’s interdisciplinary research has been recognized by over 60 major national and international awards. Prior to joining, Ali was Levi Knight Professor of Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, and Radiology at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA).”

Paul Terasaki’s grandchildren Paul and Susie work there as members of the three head-strong Board of Directors. The Chairman is their dad, Keith Terasaki.

Here are the Terasaki family celebrating their CEO’s grand achievement in 2020:

Yes, Khademhosseini bought a fake award from the scamference organiser Ashutosh Tiwari and his fictional IAAM:

“Dr. Ali Khademhosseini […] is distinguished among the brightest and most impactful scientists for his commitment to assure and distribute his knowledge and methods of personalized health to as many people in need as possible. The International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) is a prestigious publishing house of the latest and best scientific research and news in the interdisciplinary fields of materials science. As an organization, they are committed to the rigorous discovery and widespread dissemination of cutting-edge work that benefits the world. They also aim to educate as many people as possible; this is their motivation for awarding fellowships to materials scientists like Dr. Khademhosseini…”

I think Khademhosseini and Tiwari are a match made in heaven.

Until this stage, one could almost blame someone else and not humanity’s great saviour and teacher Khademhosseini for all these “irregularities”. Were it not for the papers from his own lab. Like this one:

Xuetao Shi , Serge Ostrovidov , Yiwei Shu , Xiaobin Liang , Ken Nakajima , Hongkai Wu, Ali Khademhosseini Microfluidic Generation of Polydopamine Gradients on Hydrophobic Surfaces Langmuir (2014) doi: 10.1021/la4041216 

Khademhosseini explained on PubPeer that the figures were simply “incorrectly labelled“. He should have blamed the first author! This here doesn’t happen by mistake of oversight, you need to remove one fluorescence channel before copy-pasting:

Xuetao Shi , Toshinori Fujie , Akihiro Saito , Shinji Takeoka , Ying Hou , Yiwei Shu , Mingwei Chen , Hongkai Wu, Ali Khademhosseini Periosteum‐Mimetic Structures Made from Freestanding Microgrooved Nanosheets Advanced Materials (2014) doi: 10.1002/adma.201305804 

Same first author Xuetao Shi, now professor at South China University of Technology:

Xuetao Shi , Serge Ostrovidov , Yihua Zhao , Xiaobin Liang , Motohiro Kasuya , Kazue Kurihara , Ken Nakajima , Hojae Bae , Hongkai Wu, Ali Khademhosseini Microfluidic Spinning of Cell-Responsive Grooved Microfibers Advanced Functional Materials (2015) doi: 10.1002/adfm.201404531 

Khademhosseini and his associates defecated into that fancy Wiley journal several times, here again with Shi:

Xuetao Shi , Haixin Chang, Song Chen , Chen Lai , Ali Khademhosseini, Hongkai Wu Regulating Cellular Behavior on Few‐Layer Reduced Graphene Oxide Films with Well‐Controlled Reduction States Advanced Functional Materials (2012) doi: 10.1002/adfm.201102305 

Shi and his former mentor Khademhosseini replied on PubPeer that “the images for panels C and 0 were mistakenly taken from the same dataset” and that they “will be working with the authors, journal and publisher to correct this issue.“

I wonder if the publisher or the journal editors mind all this fakery:

Alireza Moshaverinia, Chider Chen , Xingtian Xu , Sahar Ansari , Homayoun H. Zadeh , Scott R. Schricker , Michael L. Paine , Janet Moradian‐Oldak, Ali Khademhosseini, Malcolm L. Snead, Songtao Shi Regulation of the Stem Cell–Host Immune System Interplay Using Hydrogel Coencapsulation System with an Anti‐Inflammatory Drug Advanced Functional Materials (2015)  doi: 10.1002/adfm.201500055 

Here the authors just told Bik to get lost:

Natashya Falcone, Menekse Ermis, Ankit Gangrade, Auveen Choroomi , Patric Young, Tess G. Mathes , Mahsa Monirizad , Fatemeh Zehtabi , Marvin Mecwan , Marco Rodriguez , Yangzhi Zhu , Youngjoo Byun , Ali Khademhosseini, Natan Roberto De Barros, Han‐Jun Kim Drug‐Eluting Shear‐Thinning Hydrogel for the Delivery of Chemo‐ and Immunotherapeutic Agents for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Advanced Functional Materials (2024) doi: 10.1002/adfm.202309069 

Natashya Falcone, Head Coordinator of Bioengineering Education at Khademhosseini’s Terasaki Institute, told Bik off:

“This is just a representative image for each group, not data. […] Again this does not change any conclusion for any of the groups, it is solely a representative image of what the gels look like.“

Since Bik failed to run away crying and apologising like Falcone must be used from her subordinates at Terasaki, Falcone tried another approach and assured Bik that “we adhere to the highest standards of research at our institute” and “plan to submit an Erratum to the journal“.

You may recall Khademhosseini’s former mentee Yanan Du, this time he remained silent and didn’t even offer to “express our gratitude“:

Yanan Du , Majid Ghodousi , Hao Qi , Nikhil Haas, Wenqian Xiao, Ali Khademhosseini Sequential assembly of cell‐laden hydrogel constructs to engineer vascular‐like microchannels Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2011) doi: 10.1002/bit.23102 

Here is Khademhosseini with a fellow Iranian native, Esmaiel Jabbari at the University of South Carolina:

Danial Barati , Seyed Ramin Pajoum Shariati , Seyedsina Moeinzadeh , Juan M. Melero-Martin, Ali Khademhosseini, Esmaiel Jabbari Spatiotemporal release of BMP-2 and VEGF enhances osteogenic and vasculogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells and endothelial colony-forming cells co-encapsulated in a patterned hydrogel Journal of controlled release (2016) doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2015.12.031 

No author commented there, what can they say indeed. This is somewhat bizarre:

Praveen Bandaru , Dafeng Chu , Wujin Sun , Soufian Lasli , Chuanzhen Zhao , Shuang Hou , Shiming Zhang , Jiahua Ni , Giorgia Cefaloni , Samad Ahadian , Mehmet Remzi Dokmeci , Shiladitya Sengupta , Junmin Lee, Ali Khademhosseini A Microfabricated Sandwiching Assay for Nanoliter and High-Throughput Biomarker Screening Small (2019) doi: 10.1002/smll.201900300 

The penultimate author Junmin Lee, assistant professor at Pohang University in Korea and Khademhosseini’s former postdoc, still affiliated with Terasaki Institute, lamented that “some of the original images became inadvertently mixed up or misplaced for reasons unknown to us at the time” and provided this:

Now, even assuming the explanation is not a lie, not one of those 3 images was correct in the published figure. So what about their other figures without duplications, were the images randomly distributed there also, all without affecting the conclusions of course?

Here more of that Terasakian attitude:

Xin Zhao, Qi Lang , Lara Yildirimer , Zhi Yuan Lin , Wenguo Cui , Nasim Annabi , Kee Woei Ng , Mehmet R. Dokmeci , Amir M. Ghaemmaghami, Ali Khademhosseini Photocrosslinkable Gelatin Hydrogel for Epidermal Tissue Engineering Advanced Healthcare Materials (2016) doi: 10.1002/adhm.201500005 

The first author Xin Zhao, now professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a Highly Cited Researcher and one of “The World’s Top 2% Scientists” educated Bik: “The hydrogels were fully degraded on day 3 for 5% and day 14 for 10% so the image in the box shows there is no gel. This was explained in the manuscript” and “No samples there as they are degraded. The image means 100% degradation.” Rather shameless, because the images are not similar, but pixel-identical.

Khademhosseini must have been very scared when Elisabeth Bik started to screen his papers. Here the oldest case she flagged in July 2021, a collaboration with Australian colleagues, now corrected:

Amir Mellati , Chia-Ming Fan , Ali Tamayol , Nasim Annabi , Sheng Dai , Jingxiu Bi , Bo Jin , Cory Xian , Ali Khademhosseini, Hu Zhang Microengineered 3D cell-laden thermoresponsive hydrogels for mimicking cell morphology and orientation in cartilage tissue engineering Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2017) doi: 10.1002/bit.26061 

Yes, I know, totally shameless. This one was flagged on PubPeer in June 2024, and before Christmas, Khademhosseini already successfully corrected it:

Nafiseh Masoumi , Benjamin L. Larson , Nasim Annabi, Mahshid Kharaziha , Behnam Zamanian , Kayle S. Shapero , Alexander T. Cubberley , Gulden Camci‐Unal, Keefe. B. Manning, John E. Mayer, Ali Khademhosseini Electrospun PGS:PCL Microfibers Align Human Valvular Interstitial Cells and Provide Tunable Scaffold Anisotropy Advanced Healthcare Materials (2014) doi: 10.1002/adhm.201300505 

The Correction from 23 December 2024 credited the authors for finding the error all by themselves:

“We identified an error in the assembly of Figure 2B, where a representative SEM image from the PGS/PCL (1:1), random was inadvertently placed for the PGS/PCL (2:1), random during the assembly of the original images. To rectify this, we located a correct SEM image for the PGS/PCL (2:1), random, and revised Panel B in Figure 2. We would like to emphasize that replacing this image will not affect the conclusions and findings of our study.”

This paper received even a second correction:

Nasim Annabi, Suzanne M. Mithieux , Pinar Zorlutuna , Gulden Camci-Unal, Anthony S. Weiss , Ali Khademhosseini Engineered cell-laden human protein-based elastomer Biomaterials (2013) doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.03.076 

Bik noted that “1) none of the four panels in the corrected figure match the original figure, and that 2) the bar graph on the right completely different measurements and error bars.“. Khademhosseini’s former mentee and fellow Iran-native Nasim Annabi, now associate professor at UC Los Angeles, explained that “the original excel file” was unavailable. Bik found more duplications:

In December 2024, Annabi seemingly denied the issue in Fig 2 with “the cells are not in the same focal plane.” But her second correction from November 2024 said something else:

“Fig. 2 A-i: An error occurred in the placement of the representative SEM image for 10 % MeTro with a 31 % methacrylation degree (Fig. 2A–i). […] This correction does not impact the pore size calculations, data interpretation, or the study’s conclusions. The authors would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

Here are Annabi and her mentor Khademhosseini again, and yes, they did manage to correct this one also, because Advanced Materials:

Batzaya Byambaa , Nasim Annabi, Kan Yue , Grissel Trujillo‐de Santiago , Mario Moisés Alvarez , Weitao Jia , Mehdi Kazemzadeh‐Narbat , Su Ryon Shin , Ali Tamayol, Ali Khademhosseini Bioprinted Osteogenic and Vasculogenic Patterns for Engineering 3D Bone Tissue Advanced Healthcare Materials (2017) doi: 10.1002/adhm.201700015 

The penultimate author Ali Tamayol, now associate professor at University of Connecticut, patted his critics on the head with:

“Necessary corrections are made […] The authors would like to thank you for assisting us to identify errors and improving the quality of the work.“

The correction appeared just before Christmas on 23 December 2024:

“In Figure 7C an error was identified, where a micrograph representing a perfused condition was inadvertently placed for a non-perfused condition. […] In Figure 3A two images were mistakenly used in the groups of HUVECs only, GelMA_HIGH-VEGF on Day 5, and HUVECs+MSCs in GelMA_HIGH-VEGF with a HUVECs/MSCs ratio of 2/1 on Day 7. […] In Figure S3 it was found that the figures in the first column did not match the legend because images of 3D hydrogel were accidentally used in place of the 2D control samples during the Figure assembly process. […]

It should be noted that all of these changes do not affect the conclusions of the manuscript.

The authors apologize for these errors.”

Here the correction about unaffected conclusions must be still in pre-production, the first auithor Serge Ostrovidov is still working under Khademhoseeini:

Serge Ostrovidov , Nasim Annabi, Azadeh Seidi , Murugan Ramalingam, Fariba Dehghani, Hirokazu Kaji , Ali Khademhosseini Controlled Release of Drugs from Gradient Hydrogels for High-Throughput Analysis of Cell–Drug Interactions Analytical Chemistry (2012) doi: 10.1021/ac202256c 

Unlike other Khademhosseini papers, this one was flagged not by Bik, but by the PubPeer user Actinopolyspora biskrensis, in October 2021:

Akhilesh K. Gaharwar , Silvia M. Mihaila , Archana Swami , Alpesh Patel , Shilpa Sant , Rui L. Reis , Alexandra P. Marques , Manuela E. Gomes , Ali Khademhosseini Bioactive Silicate Nanoplatelets for Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Advanced Materials (2013) doi: 10.1002/adma.201300584 

In June 2023, Wiley’s elite journal issued a correction:

“Figure 1d and 2b in the published article have overlapping images. The authors have performed a new set of experiments to update Figure 1d and 2b with a new set of data. […] The authors would like to thank Anna Kersey, a graduate student in Prof. Akhilesh Gaharwar’s laboratory at Texas A&M University for performing these new set of experiments.”

It must be very motivating for you to see that the iranian genius Akhilesh Gaharwar made it to professor and “Presidential Impact Fellow” in Texas with crap like this. And he now can order such desired results from his own students produce, or else.

Other sleuths joined the treasure hunt. Here Sholto David, studying a paper very much relevant for lab-grown meat:

Yumeng Xue , Han‐Jun Kim , Junmin Lee , Yaowen Liu , Tyler Hoffman , Yi Chen , Xingwu Zhou , Wujin Sun , Shiming Zhang , Hyun‐Jong Cho , JiYong Lee , Heemin Kang , WonHyoung Ryu , Chang‐Moon Lee , Samad Ahadian , Mehmet R. Dokmeci Bo Lei , KangJu Lee, Ali Khademhosseini Co-Electrospun Silk Fibroin and Gelatin Methacryloyl Sheet Seeded with Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Tendon Regeneration Small (2022) doi: 10.1002/smll.202107714 

KangJu Lee, still a member of Khademhosseini’s lab, protested on PubPeer: “The published paper doesn’t have these data.” Indeed, the paper must have received a stealth correction after publication by that Wiley journal, and only the old version at PubMed bears witness to what was secretely tidied up.

Now that you probably formed an opinion on Khademhosseini’s honesty and decency, I have a serious question. This is his OMEAT manufacturing process:

Again, consider the fact how often this man and his associates told bullshit and untruths when confronted with falsifications in their published works. What exactly would prevent such people from buying actual ground beef from slaughtered cows, and secretely repackaging it as burgers made allegedly from ethical lab-grown meat? How would anyone ever be able to scientifically check if the contents were lab-grown from cow cells as claimed?

Serious question in need of an urgent debate, considering that Khademhosseini is not the only dishonest regenerative medicine researcher who runs a multi-million dollar heavy lab-grown meat business, again, read here:

Post-Scriptum

In 2013, Khademhosseini and a team of editor colleagues published a strange editorial in their ACS journal, its lead author was the German nanotechnologist Wolfgang Parak, at that time a collaborator of Paolo Macchiarini and Philip Jungebluth, read this 2016 article, and see below:

So here is that “Be critical but fair” editorial from 2013, ironically rather prescient of the Macchiarini affair and also of Khademhosseini’s own current situation:

Wolfgang J. Parak , Warren C. W. Chan , Jason H. Hafner , Paula T. Hammond , Mark C. Hersam , Ali Javey , Ali Khademhosseini , Nicholas A. Kotov , Paul Mulvaney , Andre E. Nel , Peter J. Nordlander , Reginald M. Penner , Andrey L. Rogach , Raymond E. Schaak , Molly M. Stevens , Andrew T. S. Wee , C. Grant Willson , Paul S. Weiss Be critical but fair ACS Nano (2013) doi: 10.1021/nn405306e

“In science, we face a similar problem: the numbers of blogs, twitter messages, etc. in which individuals accuse others of academic fraud are steadily rising. Although one might think that this trend is generally beneficial for the purity of science, there are also obvious risks involved. […] Thus, in this Editorial, we outline some general behavior guidelines that we believe should be followed in such cases. In general, we need to respect our law, in dubio pro reo, which tells us not to condemn anyone before wrongdoing has been proven. It is easy to tweet a message like “X committed fraud and manipulated data”, but how do we know that this is, in fact, true, and that instead, it was perhaps person Y who sent the tweet who just wanted to damage an unwanted competitor? “

The article then makes clear that only the journal editors are qualified to judge the evidence of data manipulation, and the evidence cannot be submitted anonymously. Also bloggers are warned not to publish anything before editorial decision is made, and to do so only non-anonymously. As I did, and got sued several times by Parak’s esteemed collaborator Jungebluth.

 

---