---
title: "List of scientific misconduct incidents"
chunk: 8/9
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientific_misconduct_incidents"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:29:35.678731+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Social sciences ==
Mart Bax (Netherlands), former professor of political anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit, committed multiple acts of scientific misconduct including data fabrication, with a 2020 article in Ethnologia Europaea characterizing Bax's misconduct as "incredible and appalling." Bax, who as of 2020 has had nine of his research publications retracted, was found in 2013 to have never published 61 of the papers he listed on his CV.
Bruno Frey (Switzerland), an economist formerly at the University of Zurich, in 2010–11 committed multiple acts of self-plagiarism in articles about the Titanic disaster. Frey admitted to the self-plagiarism, terming the acts "grave mistake[s]" and "deplorable."
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (Germany), former Minister of Defence of Germany, resigned from his office because of plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation from the University of Bayreuth. The university, which had awarded Guttenberg's dissertation with summa cum laude distinction, revoked his Ph.D. title on 23 February 2011, and Guttenberg resigned in March.
Michael LaCour (US), former graduate student in political science at UCLA, was the lead author of the 2014 article "When contact changes minds". Published in Science and making international headlines, the paper was later retracted because of numerous irregularities in the methodology and falsified data. Following the retraction Princeton University rescinded an assistant professorship that had been offered to LaCour.
Philippe Rushton (Canada), formerly of the Department of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario and former head of the white supremacist hate group Pioneer Fund, engaged in "research [that] was unethical, scientifically flawed, and based on racist ideas and agenda." As of 2023, six of Rushton's research publications had been retracted.
Diederik Stapel (Netherlands), former professor of social psychology at Tilburg University, fabricated data in dozens of studies on human behaviour, a deception described by The New York Times as "an audacious academic fraud." Stapel has had 58 of his publications retracted.
Brian Wansink (US), former John S. Dyson Endowed Chair in the Applied Economics and Management Department at Cornell University, was found in 2018 by a University investigatory committee to have "committed academic misconduct in his research and scholarship, including misreporting of research data, problematic statistical techniques, failure to properly document and preserve research results, and inappropriate authorship." As of 2020, Wansink has had 18 of his research papers retracted (one twice); seven other papers have received an expression of concern, and 15 others have been corrected.
Francisco Gómez Camacho (Spain), a Jesuit priest and emeritus professor at Madrid's Comillas Pontifical University, has had three publications about the history of economic theories retracted due to plagiarism.
Francesca Gino (US), a professor at Harvard Business School, was put on administrative leave after accusations surfaced that she had falsified data in multiple studies over a period of 10 years. As of 2024, five of Gino's research publications have been retracted.
Dan Ariely (US), a professor at Duke University, had a paper retracted over concerns about data fabrication, in addition to several other controversies about his data.
Marc Hauser (US), an evolutionary biologist and former Professor of psychology at Harvard University, was found by a University committee and the US Office of Research Integrity to have fabricated and falsified data in his research.