A former Harvard professor has admitted he made 'mistakes' in his research experiments that led to the inquiry by Office of Research Integrity, whose findings were released Wednesday.
Marc Hauser, a renowned scientist and former Harvard University psychologist released a statement after the findings were posted online, in which he apologized.
"Although I have fundamental differences with some of the findings," Hauser wrote, "I acknowledge that I made mistakes. . . . I let important details get away from my control, and as head of the lab, I take responsibility for all errors made within the lab, whether or not I was directly involved."
The report by ORI, an agency of Department Health and Human Services that regulates research funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, says that the popular professor and public intellectual had fabricated data, manipulated results in multiple experiments, and incorrectly described how studies were conducted, Boston Globe reported.
It also details the reasons behind Harvard's decision to conduct a three-year investigation that concluded in 2010.
The news of Harvard's investigation into one of its professors was broken by the Boston Globe in August 2010, when it reported that Hauser had sent letters to his colleagues saying that the Ivy League university had found evidences of research misconduct when his lab was investigated. Hence, one of his papers published in the journal Cognition was retracted, two were corrected and a number of unpublished experiments had problems.
Hauser reportedly took a leave of absence following the investigation and after faculty voted to bar him from teaching in the psychology department, he resigned.
The federal report outlines a series of unethical practices allegedly followed in his unpublished experiments on tamarin monkeys, which were funded by the National Institutes of Health. Harvard elaborated the issues in its confidential report to ORI. But, the agency has reportedly made its own analysis.
Though the ORI findings say 'research misconduct', it is still unclear whether the 'fabrication' and 'falsification' of data on Hauser's part was intentional. The ORI also says that Hauser neither admitted nor denied committing research misconduct.
Many supporters of Hauser attribute the errors in his research to sloppy record-keeping, not fraud, reports Nature.
The findings will be published in the Federal Register Thursday and lists six cases in which Hauser allegedly engaged in research misconduct in work supported by the NIH.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Hauser now works at the Alternative Education Program at Cape Cod Collaborative, working with at-risk and troubled youth.
