[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 135 (Monday, July 15, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Page 46520]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-17750]


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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) and the Assistant Secretary for Health have taken final action in 
the following case:
    James C. Pennington, Brown University: Based on the report of an 
inquiry/investigation conducted by Brown University and additional 
analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight review, the U.S. Public 
Health Service (PHS) found that James C. Pennington, formerly a 
graduate student in the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic 
Sciences, engaged in scientific misconduct by fabricating data in his 
master's thesis. The research was supported by National Institute on 
Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Institutes 
of Health (NIH), grant R01 DC000314, ``Speech and language processing 
in aphasia.''
    Specifically, PHS found that:
    1. For Experiment 3, reported as having been conducted with 12 
normal subjects, Mr. Pennington fabricated: (a) The mean reaction time 
data to auditory stimuli presented in Figures 5 and 6, and the results 
of the associated statistical analyses; and (b) the accuracy data 
presented in Tables 4 and 5, and the results of the associated 
statistical analysis.
    2. For Experiment 4, reported as having been conducted with 6 
subjects with Broca's aphasia, Mr. Pennington fabricated: (a) The mean 
reaction time data to auditory stimuli presented in Figures 7 and 8, 
and the results of the associated statistical analyses; and (b) the 
accuracy data presented in Table 6, and the results of the associated 
statistical analysis.
    The fabrication of Experiments 3 and 4, which were intended to 
incorporate improvements to the procedures used in Experiments 1 and 2, 
resulted in the premature termination of the planned experimental 
procedures and indeterminate or possibly misleading findings relative 
to the influence of negative priming on the processing of auditory 
stimuli in normal and aphasic subjects.
    Mr. Pennington has entered into a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement in 
which he has voluntarily agreed for a period of three (3) years, 
beginning on June 21, 2002: (1) To exclude himself from serving in any 
advisory capacity to 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 Mr. Pennington's 
participation is proposed or that uses him in any capacity on PHS 
supported research, or that submits a report of PHS-funded research in 
with he is involved, must concurrently submit a plan for supervision of 
his duties to the funding agency for approval. The supervisory plan 
must be designed to ensure the scientific integrity of Mr. Pennington's 
research contribution. The institution also must submit a copy of the 
supervisory plan to ORI.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Director, Division of Investigative 
Oversight, Office of Research Integrity, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 700, 
Rockville, MD 20852. (301) 443-5330.

Chris B. Pascal,
Director, Office of Research Integrity.
[FR Doc. 02-17750 Filed 7-12-02; 8:45 am]
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