Investigating allegations of scientific misconduct

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7511.245

BMJ 2005;331:245-246 (30 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7511.245

Editorial

Investigating allegations of scientific misconduct

Journals can do only so much; institutions need to be willingto investigate

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In this issue we take the unusual step of publishing an "expressionof concern" (p 266)¹ about a paper the BMJ published in 1992,²together with an account of our attempts to resolve the suspicionsabout this and other papers written by the author, Dr Ram BSingh of Moradabad, India (p 281).³ The BMJ's expression ofconcern coincides with a similar expression about another ofSingh's papers in this week's Lancet.

As White describes in her article,³ doubts about the validityof the data in Singh's 1992 paper arose soon after we had publishedit—when Singh sent us a succession of other studies. Thereviewers of the subsequent papers alerted us to discrepanciesin the data, and to doubts about Singh's work that were alreadywell known among researchers into diet and coronary heart disease.

What should journal editors do when confronted . . . [Full text of this article]

Jane Smith, deputy editor

BMJ

Fiona Godlee, editor

BMJ
(fgodlee@bmj.com)

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