In response to the Faulty IISER-Tvm Facebook post that I shared about the lack of action against Prof. V. Ramakrishnan, the Director of IISER Thiruvananthapuram, despite my article pointing out the “copy and paste” content in his papers, Harsh Jog from IISER Pune asked: Can't the IISER Tvm faculty issue a statement? Why wait for... Continue Reading →
‘Copy and paste’ content spotted in IISER Thiruvananthapuram director’s papers
Over 50 papers published between 1984 and 2014 by Prof. V. Ramakrishnan, formerly with the School of Physics, Madurai Kamaraj University and currently the Director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Thiruvananthapuram have varying degrees of content taken verbatim from or have very close similarity with other previously published papers. Large... Continue Reading →
CSIR: IMTECH scientist sacked for fabricating data
Swaranjit Singh Cameotra, a senior scientist at the Chandigarh-based Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), a CSIR lab, has been removed from service early this month for fabricating data in three papers published in 2013 (April 17, October 1 and October 8) in a scientific journal PLOS ONE. All the three papers were retracted by the... Continue Reading →
Editorial: A blot on Indian science
That getting papers published in scientific journals, reputable ones included, using manufactured data is virtually child’s play has been made painfully evident by a team of scientists at the Chandigarh-based Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), which functions under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Three papers that the team published last year in the... Continue Reading →
IMTECH: CSIR scientist used faked data in seven papers
Three papers published in the journal PLOS ONE in 2013 by a group of Indian researchers at the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh, were retracted by the journal on July 9, 2014. Four more papers published in 2013 by the same group are in the process of being retracted. All the papers contain fabricated data.... Continue Reading →
Now, reversing adult cells to stem cells becomes easy
If in 2006 Shinya Yamanaka showed to the world that reversing adult cells (differentiated cells) to behave like stem cells — induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) — is indeed possible by introducing four transcription factors, two studies published today (January 30) in Nature have gone a step further. Haruko Obokata from the Harvard Medical... Continue Reading →
Expert committee report plagiarised
Published in The Hindu on August 30, 2012 The “Report on possible impacts of communication towers on wildlife including birds and bees,” is a textbook example of how not to write scientific reports. An expert committee, also comprising a few scientists from reputed institutions, was constituted in August 2010 by the Ministry of Environment... Continue Reading →
More instances of plagiarism come to light
Published in the Hindu on March 9, 2012 Three more instances of plagiarism committed by C.N.R. Rao, eminent scientist and Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister, and S.B. Krupanidhi, senior professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, have come to light. Professor Krupanidhi's student Basant Chitara at the IISc is the first... Continue Reading →
Editorial: Fatal attraction of plagiarism
Published in The Hindu on March 2, 2012 Plagiarism is a curse that afflicts every endeavour where pen is put to paper — journalism, literature and academic research — but when it shows up in the world of science, the consequences can be far more damaging. At stake are not just individual reputations but the... Continue Reading →
