NOT-OD-02-061: FINDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT

Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS)
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FINDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT

Release Date:  July 17, 2002

NOTICE: NOT-OD-02-061

Department of Health and Human Services

Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) and 
the Assistant Secretary for Health have taken final action in the 
following case:

James C. Pennington, Brown University:  Based on the report of an 
inquiry/investigation conducted by Brown University and additional 
analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight review, the U.S. Public 
Health Service (PHS) found that James C. Pennington, formerly a 
graduate student in the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic 
Sciences, engaged in scientific misconduct by fabricating data in his 
master"s thesis.  The research was supported by National Institute on 
Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Institutes 
of Health (NIH), grant R01 DC000314, "Speech and language processing in 
aphasia."

Specifically, PHS found that:

1.  For Experiment 3, reported as having been conducted with 12 normal 
subjects, Mr. Pennington fabricated:  (a) the mean reaction time data 
to auditory stimuli presented in Figures 5 and 6, and the results of 
the associated statistical analyses, and (b) the accuracy data 
presented in Tables 4 and 5, and the results of the associated 
statistical analysis.

2.  For Experiment 4, reported as having been conducted with 6 subjects 
with Broca"s aphasia, Mr. Pennington fabricated:  (a) the mean reaction 
time data to auditory stimuli presented in Figures 7 and 8, and the 
results of the associated statistical analyses, and (b) the accuracy 
data presented in Table 6, and the results of the associated 
statistical analysis.

The fabrication of Experiments 3 and 4, which were intended to 
incorporate improvements to the procedures used in Experiments 1 and 2, 
resulted in the premature termination of the planned experimental 
procedures and indeterminate or possibly misleading findings relative 
to the influence of negative priming on the processing of auditory 
stimuli in normal and aphasic subjects.

Mr. Pennington has entered into a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement in 
which he has voluntarily agreed for a period of three (3) years, 
beginning on June 21, 2002:

(1)  to exclude himself from serving in any advisory capacity to PHS, 
including but not limited to service on any PHS advisory committee, 
board, and/or peer review committee, or as a consultant, and

(2)  that any institution that submits an application for PHS support 
for a research project on which Mr. Pennington"s participation is 
proposed or that uses him in any capacity on PHS supported research, or 
that submits a report of PHS-funded research in with he is involved, 
must concurrently submit a plan for supervision of his duties to the 
funding agency for approval.  The supervisory plan must be designed to 
ensure the scientific integrity of Mr. Pennington"s research 
contribution.  The institution also must submit a copy of the 
supervisory plan to ORI.

INQUIRIES

For further information contact:

Director
Division of Investigative Oversight
Office of Research Integrity
5515 Security Lane, Suite 700
Rockville, MD  20852
Telephone:  301-443-5330
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