ORI Debars Former Univ. of Louisville Vice President for Research
The HHS Office of Research Integrity (ORI) has taken the rare step of debarring a former researcher for three years, among the harshest sanctions available for research misconduct. Douglas D. Taylor, former professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, “used falsely labeled images to falsely report data in figures, and in one finding, intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly plagiarized, reused, and falsely labeled an image to falsely report data in a figure,” ORI said in a Nov. 22 post on its website. Taylor’s false images, figures and finding were found in a funded Public Health Service (PHS) award, 12 unfunded PHS applications and two PHS-supported papers, ORI said. Taylor’s research was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
In some instances, Taylor used data from ovarian cancer research and relabeled it to represent pancreatic cancer studies. For three years, beginning Oct. 17, Taylor was prohibited from participating in federally funded programs and serving as a PHS advisor. HHS will request retraction of the papers published in 2008 and 2009. Retraction Watch reported that Taylor left the university in 2013 and that he had NCI funding of $153,215 from 2009 to 2011. Instead of imposing debarment, ORI typically reaches voluntary settlement agreements with investigators who are routinely required to have their research supervised for several years.