Wisconsin-Madison Investigation Finds Spurious Data in 3 Grant Applications

A genetics professor who resigned from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in March fabricated data on three applications for grants, according to a university report described in today’s Wisconsin State Journal. The professor, Elizabeth Goodwin, is said to have admitted some but not all of the misconduct, which was disclosed by her graduate students, even at the risk of their own careers. The spurious data appeared in applications for grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Agriculture Department, and the federal Office of Research Integrity might now bar Ms. Goodwin from receiving such grants in the future. Her research collaborators are now discussing whether papers published in three scientific journals might need to be retracted.