What is Research Integrity Law?
There can be disputes about ownership of research. Research is costly and can take years. Sometimes, the results of research are controversial or extremely valuable. Suddenly, a dispute can arise about ownership. Or the research can be misappropriated and the extent of effort, and thus reward, can be manipulated by individuals with substandard integrity. In those cases, a law firm such as Scipione Legal Solutions can navigate through the defenses and allegations so you can retain the value of your work and focus on your profession.
Heard about the study claiming men who carry guitar cases are more attractive?
It’s been retracted
A controversial psychologist has lost a bizarre paper which claimed that men who carry a guitar cases do better with the ladies (see Nicholas Guéguen The Psychology of Music, 2014). This was one of many papers that Guéguen had concerns with – in which two individuals James Heathers and Nick Brown believe the results don’t withstand scrutiny.
Guéguen was the subject of a misconduct investigation in 2019 that cleared him of wrongdoing. He also lost a 2014 paper in Archives of Sexual Behaviour on how high heels really do make a woman sexier. The guitar paper “Men’s music ability and attractiveness to women in a real-life courtship context” was hit with an expression of concern in July 2015.
Queries were raised about methodological rigour & lack of info regarding informed consent and ethics for the research. Samuel Mehr of Harvard said of the study: “drawing attention to serious ethical concerns and the possibility of unreliable data reporting. As part of a further investigation that involved requesting further information from the authors, reviews were completed by a panel of five new independent referees (all of whom are senior researchers in the field of Psychology of Music).
The reviewers reached a unanimous conclusion that the reported data were not reliable, also noting ethical concerns relating to informed consent and research involving vulnerable participants. The article has now been retracted based on the panel’s unanimous conclusion that the reported data were not reliable.”
A researcher Brown, who has been looking into Guéguen’s work for years said he’s convinced the research deserves more retractions: “For what it’s worth, I see absolutely no difference in plausibility between this [the guitar paper] and 90% of the 60 or so of Guéguen’s articles that I have examined. Apparently he has around 340 published articles, so you can see the potential implications for the Retraction Watch leaderboard if editors would start to take their jobs seriously.”
Don’t be the victim of a researchers’ lack of integrity.
If you or someone you know has been negatively affected by a colleagues lack of integrity, know there’s a solution. Scipione Legal Solutions has the experience and knowledge to help you succeed in your Research Integrity legal claims. There can be substantial compensation for unethical research practices to help you recuperate damage to your reputation and body of work.