Francesca Gino, a professor at Harvard Business School who has come under fire for data manipulation allegations, suggested that Boston University professor and co-author Nina Mazar may have falsified her data, according to an internal HBS report. did.
Magyar’s name had not previously been reported, but she was identified in the report as one of two female co-authors with Gino on a famous 2012 study, and later published by The Crimson. I confirmed her identity. A copy of the report was unsealed by a judge on Thursday, with Magyar’s name redacted throughout the document.
Magyar did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday.
Last June, three business school professors who write the data research blog Data Colada publicly accused Gino of falsifying data in at least four papers.
Following the allegations, the business school launched an internal investigation that resulted in a nearly 1,300-page report released Thursday, banning Gino from campus and stripping him of his endowed faculty title. The following month, Gino also received notice from the Harvard University President’s Office that her tenure was being considered for revocation.
According to the report, Gino initially made two defenses to the investigation. In other words, the data anomaly was due to an honest mistake, and the other was that someone other than her had tampered with the data.
A 2012 study that Gino co-authored with Magyar and three other prominent business school professors was retracted in 2021 after allegations that the paper contained fraudulent data. This infamous study claims to have shown that asking respondents to sign a form before filling it out reduces the likelihood of them lying.
According to the HBS report, Gino specifically singled out Magyar as “the person most likely to have malicious intent” and as both the means and motivation for the data manipulation.
Gino claimed the move was retaliation for allegedly failing to adequately defend Magyar against criticism of her 2012 study. According to the report, Gino claimed that Magyar had access to his account on Qualtrics, a platform used to collect and access research data.
Gino said there were tensions between the five co-authors of a 2012 study after they began trying to replicate the study’s results a year before the first data fraud allegations arose. Here are some exchanges that demonstrate this. According to the report, Gino claimed that Magyar told him, “You’re going to be hurt just like I was.”
Still, the business school’s report concluded that while the discrepancy could be due to malicious actors, the evidence shows it is not plausible.
The report said Gino “did not show evidence that anyone had accessed her Qualtrics account or computer hard drive at any time for the purpose of tampering with the data,” adding that “Magyar, her primary suspect, There was no evidence that he had any login credentials.” Or access her laptop. ” The report further noted that Mr. Gino was the only person involved in all four studies under investigation.
The investigation concluded that Gino “engaged in multiple acts of research misconduct,” the faculty senate called for a correction of the scientific record and an audit of Gino’s work, and HBS Dean Srikant M. The university will place her on unpaid leave and begin the process of dismissing her from the university.
Gino denied all allegations of research misconduct against her. “I just want to say that I am in no way involved in academic fraud,” Gino said in a statement posted on her website Friday.
In a statement, Gino denounced the case against her as “weak” and made up of “false allegations.”
Gino is currently engaged in a $25 million legal battle against Harvard University and Data Colada, accusing the university of sex discrimination and accusing Harvard University and Data Colada of colluding to falsely accuse her of destroying her reputation. He claims he was injured.
The case is awaiting its first major verdict.
—Staff writer Benjamin Isaac can be reached at benjamin.isaac@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @Benjamini sack_1.
