[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 175 (Friday, September 10, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Page 49188]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-23463]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary


Findings of Scientific Misconduct

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research Integrity 
(ORI) has made a final finding of scientific misconduct in the 
following case:
    Karrie Recknor, University of Washington: Based on a report dated 
January 27, 1999, by the University of Washington, Ms. Recknor's 
admission, and information obtained by ORI during its oversight review, 
ORI finds that Ms. Karrie Recknor, former Graduate Research Assistant, 
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, engaged in 
scientific misconduct arising out of certain biomedical research 
supported by a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 
(NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant.
    Specifically, Ms. Recknor admitted to falsifying electronic mail 
responses presented to the Principal Investigator as part of a project, 
``Prognosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.'' Ms. Recknor was responsible 
for conducting interviews on the impact of life events for six subjects 
and for assigning preliminary Brown and Harris' Life Events and 
Difficulties Schedule (B&H) scores to each interview. Ms. Recknor was 
required to send the interview notes and preliminary scores to a 
collaborator. The collaborator was to reassess the scores and e-mail 
the corrected scores or an agreement statement back to Ms. Recknor. Ms. 
Recknor failed to send the interview notes and preliminary scores for 
these six interviews to the collaborator for evaluation and instead 
falsified electronic mail responses to indicate that the collaborator's 
evaluation had been conducted. Ms. Recknor entered these scores into 
the research database for the above-mentioned project. The falsified 
scores did not appear in any publications.
    Ms. Recknor has accepted the ORI finding and has entered into a 
Voluntary Settlement Agreement with ORI in which she has voluntarily 
agreed, for the two (2) year period beginning August 19, 1999:
    (1) To exclude herself from serving in any advisory capacity to the 
Public Health Service (PHS), including but not limited to service on 
any PHS advisory committee, board, and/or peer review committee, or as 
a consultant; and
    (2) That any institution that submits an application for PHS 
support for a research project on which her participation is proposed 
or which uses her in any capacity on PHS supported research, or that 
submits a report of PHS-funded research in which she is involved, must 
concurrently submit a plan for supervision of her duties to the funding 
agency for approval. The supervisory plan must be designed to ensure 
the scientific integrity of Ms. Recknor's research contribution. The 
institution also must submit a copy of the supervisory plan to ORI.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Acting Director, Division of Research 
Investigations, Office of Research Integrity, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 
700, Rockville, MD 20852, (301) 443-5330.
Lawrence J. Rhoades,
Acting Director, Office of Research Integrity.
[FR Doc. 99-23463 Filed 9-9-99; 8:45 am]
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