Hokkaido University has said that a former researcher at the university’s chemical reaction research institute fabricated data in four of his papers, including one published in the journal Science in 2020.
Ronald Lazo Reyes, who had worked as a specially appointed assistant professor at the institute under professor Masaya Sawamura, was involved in 519 counts of fabrication and 317 instances of falsification of data, according to a report released by the university’s research misconduct investigation committee on Wednesday.
Specifically, the committee cited numerous unnatural gaps and signs of data manipulation in charts. The research was related to the study of artificial catalysts to facilitate chemical reactions.