Courtesy of Candace diCarlo/Creative Commons
Two Penn professors will not be able to publish their work in the Journal of Neuroscience until 2017 due to a mistake printed in an article four years ago.
John Trojanowski and Virginia Man-Yee Lee, both professors in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, were among eight authors who tracked Alzheimer’s disease progression in genetically modified mice. The paper in question included a pair of images that purported to show the progression but instead included the same image twice, Lee told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
While other labs have found similar results to those in Trojanowski and Lee’s paper, the Journal of Neuroscience has retracted the paper and barred Trojanowski and Lee for two years.
An internal review committee at Penn reported to the Journal in June that the error was unintentional.
“It was basically a sloppy postdoc who was basically careless, not intentionally,” Lee told the Inquirer.
Currently, Trojanowski and Lee are trying to clear up the discrepancies between Penn’s ethics committee and that of the Journal of Neuroscience.
“We hope some good will come of this,” Trojanowski wrote in an email.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.