Erasmus professor quits following research fraud claims
Monday 25 June 2012
An Erasmus University professor has resigned and two of his articles in academic journals have been withdrawn following suspected fraud, according to media reports on Monday.
Direk Smeesters, professor of consumer behaviour and society, has resigned after doubts were raised about his academic integrity, the Volkskrant reported on Monday.
The two articles which have been withdrawn contain statistical results considered to be extremely unlikely and the data on which they are based is 'no longer available', the paper said.
The university said Smeesters had admitted 'selecting the data to emphasise its statistical significance.
Research
Last year two other professors were forced to stand down for fiddling with research results.
Erasmus University sacked a professor in cardio-vascular medicine for damaging the institution’s academic integrity and for ‘scientific misconduct’. In particular, Don Poldermans failed to obtain patient consent for carrying out research and recorded results ‘which cannot be resolved to patient information,’ the university said.
And Tilburg and Groningen universities said they planned to take legal action against behavioural science professor Diederik Stapel after an investigation showed he had faked research data in at least 30 scientific papers.
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With the title of professor of "Consumer behaviour and society" I am not very surprised. These new age professional titles do not always correspond to something substantial. The well known concequence of that were useless diplomas but now unfortunately fraud can be added. One possible cause could be the desire to have something to show when nothings is there to be found...
By Neo | 25 June 2012 5:20 PMMy experience tells me that plagiarism is rather common if not rampant! I had an experience that 2 of my colleagues took an article I wrote (in English),along with the theoretical model I designed and translated the text into Dutch and turned the model side way. They then proceeded to distribute the article as theirs during a faculty meeting. Of course, I received a copy as well. When I raised the question that I wrote the article, their answer was: "What's the big deal!" Nothing happened to my 2 colleagues and nothing happened to others who copied my works!
By Educator | 25 June 2012 6:38 PMGo figure!
Exactly, the Dutch have made great achievements, that is unnegligible, but lately, they just sell smoke. Since I came here few years ago, I have realised that in spite of having a good envirnment at research work, you end up knowing that you will not be able to make a good professional progress and will have to deal with fake results from other and your being put on the spot all the time. I guess that is the German hinheritance some decades ago...
By Pepe | 26 June 2012 7:57 AM