[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 45 (Thursday, March 7, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14797-14798]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-05301]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary


Findings of Research 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)

[[Page 14798]]

has taken final action in the following case:
    Adam C. Savine, Washington University in St. Louis: Based on the 
report from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and Respondent's 
admission, ORI found that Mr. Adam C. Savine, former doctoral student, 
Department of Psychology, WUSTL, engaged in research misconduct in 
research supported by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 
National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant R56 MH066078, National 
Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIH, grants F31 DA032152 and R21 
DA027821, and National Institute on Aging (NIA), NIH, grant T32 
AG00030.
    ORI found that the Respondent engaged in research misconduct by 
falsifying data that were included in the following three publications 
and six conference abstracts:

Publications

    1. Savine, A.C., & Braver, T.S. ``Local and global effects of 
motivation on cognitive control.'' Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 
12(4):692-718, 2012 Dec. (hereafter referred to as Cogn Affect Behav 
Neurosci. 2012).
    2. Savine, A.C., McDaniel, M.A., Shelton, J.T., Scullin, M.K. 
``A characterization of individual differences in prospective memory 
monitoring using the Complex Ongoing Serial Task.'' J Exp Psychol 
Gen. 141(2):337-62, 2012 May (hereafter referred to as J Exp Psychol 
Gen. 2012).
    3. Savine, A.C., & Braver, T.S. ``Motivated cognitive control: 
Reward incentives modulate preparatory neural activity during task-
switching.'' J Neurosci. 30(31):10294-305, 2010 Aug 4 (hereafter 
referred to as J Neurosci. 2010).

Conference Abstracts

    1. Savine, A.C., & Braver, T.S. (November 2010) ``The contextual 
and local effects of motivation on cognitive control.'' Psychonomics 
Society, St. Louis, MO.
    2. Savine, A.C., & Braver, T.S. (November 2010) ``A model-based 
characterization of the individual differences in prospective memory 
monitoring.'' Psychonomics Society, St. Louis, MO.
    3. Savine, A.C., & Braver, T.S. (November 2010) ``Motivated 
cognitive control: Reward incentives modulate preparatory neural 
activity during task-switching.'' Society for Neuroscience, San 
Diego, CA.
    4. Savine, A.C., & Braver, T.S. (June 2010) ``Motivated 
cognitive control: Reward incentives modulate preparatory neural 
activity during task-switching.'' Motivation and Cognitive Control 
Conference, Oxford, England.
    5. Savine, A.C., & Braver, T.S. (January 2010) ``Neural 
correlates of the motivation/cognitive control interaction: 
Activation dynamics and Performance prediction during task-
switching.'' Genetic and Experiential Influences on Executive 
Function, Boulder, CO.
    6. Savine, A.C., & Braver, T.S. (June 2009) ``Incentive Induced 
Changes in Neural Patterns During Task-Switching.'' Organization for 
Human Brain Mapping, San Francisco, CA.

    As a result of the Respondent's admission, the senior authors will 
request that the published papers be retracted or corrected.
    ORI finds that Respondent falsified data and related text in Cogn 
Affect Behav Neurosci. 2012, J Exp Psychol Gen. 2012, J Neurosci. 2010, 
and in six (6) meeting abstracts, by altering the experimental data to 
improve the statistical results. Specifically, Respondent:
    1. Falsified data in Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2012 to show an 
unambiguous dissociation between local and global motivational effects. 
Specifically, Respondent exaggerated (1) the effect of incentive 
context on response times and error rates in Table 1 and Figures 1 and 
3 for experiment 1 and (2) the effect of incentive cue timing on 
response times and error rates in Table 2 and in Figures 6, 9, and S2 
for experiment 2.
    2. Falsified data in J Exp Psychol Gen. 2012 to show that 
prospective memory is influenced by three dissociable underlying 
monitoring patterns (attentional focus, secondary memory retrieval, 
information thresholding), which are stable within individuals over 
time and are influenced by personality and cognitive differences. 
Specifically, Respondent modified the data to support the three 
category model and to show (1) that individuals fitting into each of 
the three categories exhibited differential patterns of prospective 
memory performance and ongoing task performance in Tables 1-3; Figures 
5-8, and (2) that certain cognitive and personality differences were 
predictive of distinct monitoring approaches within the three 
categories in Figure 9.
    3. Falsified data in J Neurosci. 2010 and mislabeled brain images 
to show that motivational incentives enhance task-switching performance 
and are associated with activation of reward-related brain regions, 
behavioral performance, and trial outcomes. Specifically, Respondent 
modified the data so that he could show a stronger relationship between 
brain activity and behavior in Table 2 and Figure 4 and used brain 
images that fit the data rather than the images that corresponded to 
the actual Talairach coordinates in Figure 3.
    Mr. Savine has entered into a Voluntary Settlement Agreement and 
has voluntarily agreed for a period of three (3) years, beginning on 
February 22, 2013:
    (1) To have his research supervised; Respondent agreed that prior 
to the submission of an application for U.S. Public Health Service 
(PHS) support for a research project on which his participation is 
proposed and prior to his participation in any capacity on PHS-
supported research, Respondent shall ensure that a plan for supervision 
of his duties is submitted to ORI for approval; the supervision plan 
must be designed to ensure the scientific integrity of his research 
contribution; he agreed that he shall not participate in any PHS-
supported research until such a supervision plan is submitted to and 
approved by ORI; Respondent agreed to maintain responsibility for 
compliance with the agreed upon supervision plan;
    (2) That any institution employing him shall submit, in conjunction 
with each application for PHS funds, or report, manuscript, or abstract 
involving PHS-supported research in which Respondent is involved, a 
certification to ORI that the data provided by Respondent are based on 
actual experiments or are otherwise legitimately derived and that the 
data, procedures, and methodology are accurately reported in the 
application, report, manuscript, or abstract;
    (3) To exclude himself voluntarily 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
    (4) That the senior authors will request that the following papers 
be retracted or corrected: Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2012, J Exp 
Psychol Gen. 2012, and J Neurosci. 2010.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Director, Office of Research 
Integrity, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 750, Rockville, MD 20852, (240) 
453-8200.

David E. Wright,
Director, Office of Research Integrity.
[FR Doc. 2013-05301 Filed 3-6-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-31-P