近日，南开大学校长、中国免疫学家曹雪涛被一位名为伊丽莎白·比克（Elisabeth Bik）的斯坦福大学学者指出数十篇论文涉嫌造假，论文实验图片有PS痕迹。
今天凌晨，曹雪涛校长发文回应了相关质询，称已经着手调查，仍对论文中的科学结论的有效性充满信心。Chinese university chief under investigation after research called into question
South China Morning Post
The Chinese Academy of Engineering is investigating the president of a leading university over claims that academic papers he supervised may have questionable data.
Cao Xuetao, the president of Nankai University in Tianjin, insisted that he was “confident in the validity and strength of the scientific conclusions” after the accusations were made on PubPeer, a US website that allows users to review scientific research.
Last Thursday, Elisabeth Bik, a former microbiologist who has spent the last five years identifying image manipulation in research, posted about apparently duplicated graph results from a paper Cao supervised in 2008 when he was vice-president of The Second Military Medical University.
“Each panel with the measurement of cells should have a constellation of dots but some panels appear to have the same set of dots and that is not expected in a biology experiment,” Bik wrote.
The discovery led to similar findings in more than 50 papers Cao supervised when he was with The Second Military Medical University and National Key Laboratory of Medical Immunology with Zhejiang University between 2003 and last year.
表示“不确定的；未必正确的；值得怀疑的”，英文解释为“not certain, or wrong in some way”举个🌰：
Much of late-night television is of questionable value/taste.
很多深夜播出的电视节目的意义/品位值得怀疑。
表示“免疫学”，英文解释为“the study of how the body fights disease and infection”。
Bik posted on Twitter that she was not accusing anyone of misconduct. “Please keep in mind that many of these duplications might just be honest errors,” she wrote.
An unidentified official with the academy's general office told Shanghai news site Thepaper.cn that an investigation will be carried out.
“We have already learned about the online complaints against academician Cao Xuetao. We will look into it but further investigation takes time,” the official said.中国工程院办公厅工作人员在接受采访时表示，中国工程院会针对网络反映曹雪涛院士的有关问题展开调查。“我们已经了解到网络上有关曹雪涛院士的投诉，我们会调查处理这件事情，但是进一步调查处理也需要花时间，具体以什么形式展开调查，目前暂时还不掌握最新情况，只是说我们（中国工程院）肯定会调查。”上述人士表示。Cao, who took up his post at Nankai in 2017, told China Newsweek last Friday that he would investigate the claims.
“I am aware of the attention. I will give a response when the investigation is done,” Cao was quoted as saying.
Cao responded to Bik’s posting on PubPeer on Sunday night, saying that he had made investigating the claims his top priority and had started re-examining manuscripts, raw data and lab records.He also said he would work with the “relevant journal editorial office(s) immediately” if the investigation indicated any risk of inaccuracy.
However, Cao defended his work. “Based on our analyses up to this point (still ongoing) and additional feedback we received from colleagues and peers, I would like to add that I remain confident about the validity and strength of the scientific conclusions made in those publications,” Cao said.
Cao admitted there may have been “lapses in supervision” and that he “might have fallen short”. He apologised for “any oversight” on his part.
Some of the authors of the papers in question responded to the criticism on PubPeer, saying that there had been some errors in the editing process and they had contacted the journals that published the research to correct the mistakes.
表示“过失，小失误”，英文解释为“a temporary failure”，如：a lapse of concentration 走神，举个🌰：
The management's decision to ignore the safety warnings demonstrated a remarkable lapse of judgment.
管理层作出的对安全警告不予理会的决定是决策上的明显失误。
I'm writing to you in response to recent inquiries you posted with regard to mentioned studies conducted at the National Key Laboratory of Medical Immunology and Institute of Immunology at the Second Military Medical University, with me being the corresponding author.
I appreciate your interest in our work and your commitment to protecting the accuracy of scientific records and the integrity of research pursuit. They are of utmost importance to me all along as well. Upon being notified of your inquiries, I have made them our highest priority and immediately took steps to look into the concerns you raised with the team and collaborators and carefully re-examined our manuscripts and raw data and lab records. We'll work with the relevant journal editorial office(s) immediately if our investigation indicates any risk to the highest degree of accuracy of the published records.
Based on our analyses up to this point (still ongoing) and additional feedback we received from colleagues and peers, I would like to add that I remain confident about the validity and strength of the scientific conclusions made in those publications and our work's reproducibility. Nevertheless, there is no excuse for any lapse in supervision or laboratory leadership and the concerns you raised serve as a fresh reminder to me just how important my role and responsibility are as mentor, supervisor, and lab leader; and how I might have fallen short. I feel therefore very heavy-hearted and tremendously sorry, to my current and former students, my staff and colleagues, my peers, and the larger community. I most sincerely apologize for any oversight on my part and any inconvenience it might have caused. I'll use this as an invaluable learning opportunity to do better not only in advancing science, but also in safeguarding the accuracy and integrity of science.
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LearnAndRecord
2015年2月8日
2019年11月18日
第1745天
每天持续行动学外语