Post AmWdf9IO9AGc3X7kcS by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AmWdewAovzUNMIU1WC by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:14:20Z
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A few comments on the Masliah affair revealed by Charles Piller and colleagues in @sciencemagazine It's a genuine scoop.https://www.science.org/content/article/research-misconduct-finding-neuroscientist-eliezer-masliah-papers-under-suspicion
(DIR) Post #AmWdewz9upkrsQ2Dyq by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:14:58Z
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By all measures, Masliah is totally central to research on neurodegeneration. A very successful career at UCSD with 800 publications and 18k citations, then occupying the hugely influential position of the head of the Division of Neuroscience of the National Institute on Aging.
(DIR) Post #AmWdexUi1WzZSGnQ9o by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:15:20Z
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His work also generated treatment strategies that are the subject of multiple clinical trials, with large sums of money at stake. It is likely that Masliah is by now a wealthy man and, at 65, came close to wrapping up a career without being inconvenienced.
(DIR) Post #AmWdeyBxQjaRcP1xZI by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:15:43Z
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Yet the investigation reports that a huge fraction of Masliah's papers contain image manipulations. So far 1 in 6 of his papers spanning 27 years have been flagged, and many have not yet been checked.
(DIR) Post #AmWdeysqrFtjlR6DQW by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:16:09Z
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His lab has a systemic problem and it undermines confidence in all his work: people don't cheat if it's unnecessary. For the innocent in the audience, to prove me wrong, you will need to check the original data. Good luck with that under NIH's risible 4-year retention rule!
(DIR) Post #AmWdezXcPgVXnsAlyC by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:16:25Z
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First big question. How did nobody in a lab operating in this way for 26 years and producing 800 papers raise an alert? If your data are altered, you notice. Were junior members systematically intimidated? Throughout their subsequent careers?
(DIR) Post #AmWdf0I3d1ee7ttrM0 by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:16:46Z
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The so far uniformly positive views of his personality do not suggest a particularly toxic lab culture, but Masliah's uniquely powerful position may have enabled effective silencing. We'll probably soon find out if earlier alerts were buried.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf0v3I2qY4q908O by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:17:12Z
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Alternatively, did those junior members consider that behaviour normal? That's a scary thought to which I'll return.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf1jkFZOcc3rU9I by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:17:26Z
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Second big question. This lab churned out untrustworthy research. Yet according to publication and citation data, as well as his appointment, the field basically elected him leader.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf2Pvij8kitbAu0 by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:17:43Z
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Did nobody in the field notice the work was unreliable? Is it possible that this unreliable work was no worse or maybe still better than most of the rest of the field's production?
(DIR) Post #AmWdf39J01R6zcpPd2 by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:17:57Z
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Rather than neurodegeneration research accumulating carefully validated results, this gives the impression of a field barely treading water in a swamp of untrustworthy work.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf42xf5xJmErrNY by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:18:15Z
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In this context, James Heather's recent estimate that 1/7 papers contains falsified or fabricated results suddenly seems very plausible. (I read the preprint and believe the estimate is plausible.)https://osf.io/s4gce
(DIR) Post #AmWdf4o6pnfa8SvVrs by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:18:39Z
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James also asked whether cheats might be more prolific than honest researchers. And of course, like here, they are. Almost by definition - people cheat for speed.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf5Oycj9zyoAxKi by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:18:56Z
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Third big question. What are NIH going to do about their huge procedural weaknesses this affair reveals?
(DIR) Post #AmWdf60uLhV9sRvFSK by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:19:28Z
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For NIH-funded researchers, the organisation usually seems quite unintersted in integrity issues beyond emitting incantations about "taking integrity issues very seriously" after every new scandal.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf6b4BGQPgaq7oe by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:19:55Z
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Here, somewhat surprisingly, NIH had carried out some sort of investigation, presumably following initial posts on PubPeer. Perhaps the in-house employment and high-ranking position of Masliah caught their attention and obliged them to do something.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf7AW3SmVSXQR4S by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:20:17Z
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Nevertheless, a combination of PubPeer, an alert Charles Piller and a couple of volunteer analysts ran rings and looped the loop around the NIH investigation, which only concluded regarding 2 papers. Official investigations are crap, again.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf7x58td5tA9Dlo by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:20:34Z
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Reading between the lines, it seems that NIH are scrambling to adjust to the new information they failed to investigate and were not planning a severe response, since Masliah was still representing the organisation this week. This remains to be clarified.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf8hWMEmCDBsJ9c by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:20:50Z
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The levels of wasted human and financial resources, the potential corruption of science and its administration, are significant. Masliah operated with impunity. NIH procedures are totally ineffective at detecting or deterring career-long, industrial-scale cheating.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf9IO9AGc3X7kcS by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:21:06Z
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In fact, convince me that NIH procedures don't in practice facilitate and encourage such cheating. After all, they regularly funded and then hired Masliah.
(DIR) Post #AmWdf9qm5JlxmBDDDU by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:21:29Z
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Fourth big question. Conflicts of interest. I assume (but don't know) that Masliah wound up his lab upon taking the NIA job. But, without suggesting any specific transactions, it seems likely that Masliah's position might have influenced (negatively) desire to report his misconduct.
(DIR) Post #AmWdfAZnNvmk1oHAOG by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:21:57Z
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Similarly, the industry pursuit of multiple therapeutic strategies based upon his work could well have been influenced (positively) by his position. Did he retain a direct financial interest in these? Is this a CoI to be managed? Is it managed?
(DIR) Post #AmWdfBD91dGDzqgaiu by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:22:12Z
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Fifth big question. When will the clinical trials unethically based upon unreliable work be halted?
(DIR) Post #AmWdfBuOQpr69yv88O by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:22:50Z
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A few loose ends. NIH don't want to screen for misconduct when they hire people, because of the "difficulty of the process". I'm going to predict it would be a whole lot easier and more effective if they hired Mu Yang and Matthew Schrag (or several other analysts).
(DIR) Post #AmWdfCo35uNIwaxZsu by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:23:09Z
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And, of course, there is a pile of public information on PubPeer just waiting to be "discovered" and acted upon by a permanently surprised officialdom. As this affair shows, pulling on the thread of a couple of PubPeer comments sometimes (mixing my metaphors) opens a whole can of worms.
(DIR) Post #AmWdfDdS0nUXW10d0K by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:23:29Z
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Science EiC Holden Thorp (who has a good record on dealing with misconduct) gave an unfortunately nonchalant quote about seeking a "response" from the authors and making "adjustments" to a paper if "required".
(DIR) Post #AmWdfETurjSW8jYWmW by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:23:47Z
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There is an alarmingly naive quote from a researcher in the field suggesting the synuclein antibody strategy still might be effective. People cheat for a reason, and random curative treatment strategies for complex pathologies do not have a 50% chance of working.
(DIR) Post #AmWdfFBAGw3OIrn4C0 by BorisBarbour@mastodon.social
2024-09-29T13:24:05Z
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Finally, congratulations to Charles Piller, his collaborators and all of the unrewarded analysts who brought this affair to light.