Alirio Melendez, former National University of Singapore immunologist, is a fraud

Immunologist accused of misconduct in 21 papers

NewsBlog in Nature (nature.com) (source)

19 Dec 2012 | 21:05 GMT | Posted by Richard Van Noorden

Alirio Melendez

 

After a 19-month investigation, the National University of Singapore (NUS) today says that it has determined that one of its former scientists, the immunologist Alirio Melendez, has committed “serious scientific misconduct”.  The university found fabrication, falsification or plagiarism associated with 21 papers, and no evidence indicating that other co-authors were involved in the misconduct, it says.

But the university would not identify the papers (although five of Melendez’s papers have already been retracted), nor release the report of the committee that investigated them.  That tight-lipped approach mirrors two other investigations into Melendez’s work by the University of Liverpool and the University of Glasgow, UK, which respectively abandoned and concluded inquiries last year without publicly commenting on their findings.

“It’s standard procedure that for research-misconduct investigations such a report and the list of papers would be kept confidential,” an NUS spokesperson explained to Nature. She said that the university is now contacting journal editors and co-authors about each of the papers involved, and added that normally the university would not make a public statement at all, but in this case “the scientific misconduct uncovered was unprecedented”. When asked whether the report would remain permanently under wraps, she added: “I don’t think it will be released at a later date.”

The university did not reveal Melendez’s response to the charges; last year he told Nature that he was conducting his own investigations into other papers, which he agreed contained “questionable data”, but which he asserted were not his fault. Nature made efforts to contact him for this article without success.

The NUS launched its investigation in March 2011 after an anonymous letter alleged research misconduct in two papers. An inquiry committee looking into this subsequently extended its remit to cover around 70 papers, focusing on NUS-affiliated work, and the investigation was reported in Singapore’s Straits Times in October. Melendez — who left Singapore to come to the United Kingdom in 2007 — had subsequently worked at the Glasgow and Liverpool universities, which conducted their own investigations alongside NUS.

A cascade of retractions and alterations racked up while the NUS was investigating; it now totals five retracted papers, a correction and an expression of concern (the history can be followed on Retraction Watch). In autumn of 2012, it emerged that Melendez had resigned from Liverpool in November 2011, not long after the University of Glasgow concluded its investigation in October 2011. But Glasgow told Nature it would not comment on individual cases (as the Times Higher Education also reported).

Today, the NUS says that its committee “uncovered evidence of fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism associated with 21 papers, including the two in the original allegation. Based on similarities in the pattern of misconduct and in some cases sole authorship of questionable papers, it concluded that Dr Melendez has committed serious scientific misconduct. The Committee found no evidence indicating that other co-authors were involved in the scientific misconduct. NUS has started the process of informing the relevant authors and journals about the problems in these papers to ensure that the public scientific record will be corrected.”

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(Venezuela-born Alirio Melendez was with NUS from 2001 to 2009.)

Dr  Alirio J MELENDEZ

Member, Immunology Programme

Department of Physiology

Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

National University of Singapore

 Dr Alirio J Melendez studied Medicine at Moscow State University and Biochemistry at the University of Glasgow. His PhD was a joint project between the Department of Medicine and Division of Biochemistry, University of Glasgow, under the supervision of Professor Janet M Allen. In 1998 he started employment as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow, in a newly formed laboratory for Cell Signaling studies, PFIZER Global R&D, Paris, France. In August 1999, he was promoted (on merit) to Senior Scientist to lead a team focused on the characterization and development of cell signaling discovery targets, PFIZER Global R&D Paris, France. In May 2001, was appointed Assistant Professor & Principal Investigator in the department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, NUS. At NUS he has been involved in teaching both undergraduate and graduate modules for the faculties of Medicine, Dentistry and Science. He is the Department of Physiology Research Director and Immunology group coordinator. His research focuses on studying intracellular signaling pathways in immune cells, identifying novel key regulators of inflammation, and validating the findings, using various techniques including functional genomics, on whole organism-models (mice-models) of allergy and inflammation. (source)

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Retraction Watch (source)

 

Alirio Melendez, a former National University of Singapore immunologist whose story we’ve been following here since a retraction in September 2011, committed misconduct on an “unprecedented” scale, according to the university, involving more than 20 papers.

Nature’s Richard van Noorden has the scoop (above):

After a 19-month investigation, the National University of Singapore (NUS) today says that it has determined that one of its former scientists, the immunologist Alirio Melendez, has committed “serious scientific misconduct”.  The university found fabrication, falsification or plagiarism associated with 21 papers, and no evidence indicating that other co-authors were involved in the misconduct, it says.

Melendez has retracted five papers so far, as we’ve reported, but NUS wouldn’t give the whole list. They tell Nature:

“It’s standard procedure that for research-misconduct investigations such a report and the list of papers would be kept confidential,” an NUS spokesperson explained to Nature. She said that the university is now contacting journal editors and co-authors about each of the papers involved, and added that normally the university would not make a public statement at all, but in this case “the scientific misconduct uncovered was unprecedented”. When asked whether the report would remain permanently under wraps, she added: “I don’t think it will be released at a later date.”

Translation: Well, there you have it, folks, please move along, nothing to see here. It’s “standard procedure” to sweep misconduct investigations under the carpet, so we’ll just keep doing things our way, thank you very much. We released a statement this time because the misconduct was “unprecedented.” But misconduct with precedent? We’re not going to release reports about that.

Considering the scope of some cases of misconduct nowadays, that’s a pretty high bar. Maybe NUS won’t release any reports unless they find someone who has retracted 173 papers, since 172 is the current (unofficial) record. Then again, as NUS points out, this is “standard procedure” — neither of Melendez’s two other previous employers, the University of Liverpool and the University of Glasgow, have commented on their investigations, either.

Hurrah for transparency! Makes you really think you’re getting the whole story whenever these places send out press releases, doesn’t it?

By the way, as Retraction Watch readers well know, this kind of information blackout doesn’t have to be standard procedure. Just ask the University of Connecticut, Erasmus Medical Center, Tilburg University, and others who’ve been involved in high-profile misconduct cases.

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