CROOKED UCLA RESEARCHER NOT PUNISHED

That sure gives you a lot of confidence in UCLA research

A UCLA researcher tampered with data in a study of drug users and stole more than $5,000 in cash intended for study participants, a federal oversight office said. James David Lieber, staff research associate at the Semel Institute for Neurosciences and Human Behavior, "knowingly and intentionally falsified and fabricated" interviews, urine samples and urine sample records, according to an oversight review by the Office of Research Integrity at the Department of Health and Human Services.

The department's conclusions were disclosed in a notice published in Monday's Federal Register. "This is something we're quite unhappy about, obviously," Christine Grella, the UCLA research psychologist who led the study, told the Los Angeles Times. Attempts to contact Lieber were unsuccessful.

Grella said Lieber was falsifying the information over a six-month period in 2005. UCLA convened a panel to review his work after allegations surfaced the following year, said Roberto Peccei, vice chancellor of research. Lieber was fired and researchers removed the compromised data from the study, Peccei said.

The study looked at what happened to female opiate addicts who had visited methadone clinics in Central and Southern California counties in the late 1970s, and received funding from the National Institutes of Health. Lieber was assigned to interview 53 people, for which he fabricated interviews and falsified the urine samples for 20 of the participants, the notice said. He also pocketed $5,180 intended to cover stipends and travel expenses for subjects in the study, the notice said.

The Office of Research Integrity has barred Lieber for three years from participating in any federal government contracts or serving in any advisory capacity to the U.S. Public Health Service.

Report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)