Report details Ohio State researcher’s history of ethics allegations

Nick Roll
Thu, 09 Mar 2017 05:10:03 +0000
Campus, National, carlo croce, featured, new york times, ohio state

Carlo Croce was the subject of a New York Times article documenting ethics allegations against him. Credit:?Lantern File Photo

Carlo Croce, a renowned cancer researcher at Ohio State and chair of the College of Medicine’s Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, got his latest dose of national attention on Wednesday, although it probably wasn’t the kind he wanted.

Croce, whose research has brought in millions of dollars to the university and garnered national recognition, was the subject of a New York Times article that documented a heap of falsification allegations that have been made against him and his research over the years. Croce has denied any wrongdoing, and OSU has cleared him five times, although spokesman Chris Davey told The Times that the university is now conducting an independent review.

While The Times notes the money brought in by Croce’s research — $86 million in grants — Davey said that OSU has outspent that amount facilitating his research, and decried any implication that the university tolerated falsified research for monetary purposes.

“We care deeply about this and are committed to upholding the highest standards possible,” Davey said in the statement, a copy of which he provided to The Lantern. “We take allegations of misconduct very seriously and out of an abundance of caution, in January we launched an independent review of our systems for ensuring research integrity.”

Croce denied any wrongdoing in a statement made to The Times through the Columbus-based law firm Kegler, Brown, Hill and Ritter.

“It is true that errors sometimes occur in the preparation of figures for publication,” Croce said in the statement. He added that any mistakes with figures were “honest errors,” and avoiding plagiarism relies on the integrity of the multiple authors involved on a given paper.

The Times piece documented at least 20 complaints lodged against Croce, and said another three were on the way, according to journal editors. Many of the complaints were involving alleged data manipulation.

A statement to The Lantern from KBHR noted that Croce’s work has never been retracted, and that Google Scholar ranks him as one of the most cited researchers in the world.

The Times piece also noted that Croce was previously tied to a fraud investigation concerning his time at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where there were allegations that he and a colleague misspent grant money. The investigation ended with a $2.6 million settlement paid by the university, and no parties admitted wrongdoing.

Purdue virologist David Sanders railed against Croce for what he called his “reckless disregard for the truth.” But Croce also found support.

Phillip Sharp, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he was unaware of the allegations against Croce, but told The Times that Croce’s work contained important contributions to cancer research.

“I would say Carlo has made some important contributions to the molecular causes of cancer,” Dr. Sharp said. “I can’t condone the sloppiness he has in general. But if I look historically at what Carlo has done, if I delete Carlo from the scientific community, I think the scientific community is a little less, and that isn’t true of everybody who publishes papers.”

Croce has never been penalized for his work, neither by OSU nor federal oversight agencies.