Columbia Chemist Retracts Two Papers, Part of Third

Columbia chemist Dalibor Sames has retracted two scientific papers and part of a third that he wrote for the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The retractions were based on evidence that showed the scientific data and procedures they contained were not reproducible.

The Journal of the American Chemistry Society reported the retractions online on March 1 and the New York Times did so on March 16.

The Times also credited two chemistry bloggers from within the field with previously covering the story. One of them Paul Bracher, who runs a blog on issues affecting the chemistry community, noted that he had heard about the retractions and controversy through word of mouth and that he had initially contacted major media outlets to become informed. In addition to Bracher's, other science blogs have reported on the case extensively. According to some, several of Sames' other group's papers have been removed from the Internet.

The Times reported that Bengu Sezen, who received a doctorate from Columbia last year, was listed as an author on all of the retracted papers. She defended her work in a follow-up Times story on March 18. She did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

University spokeswoman Susan Brown noted that Sames has responsibility as senior author for the retracted papers. She also noted that he had finalized the retractions in February and that they were officially printed in the Journal on March 8.

Brown commented that the specifics of the investigation into the retractions are being kept confidential in order to facilitate the process and protect those involved.

In light of the changes to the Columbia research misconduct policy that the University Senate passed on Feb. 3 of this year, she commented that, "If misconduct is an issue ... regardless of when the events happened, they will be dealt with under the new policy." She added, however, that while the investigation into the Sames case and the revisions to the research misconduct policy overlapped in their time frame, they were completely separate events.

Bracher expressed dismay at the situation, emphasizing that researchers work with current information.

"People are working in this area, trying to reproduce it," he said, referring to the retracted data.

The papers themselves dealt with C-H functionalization, which refers to replacement of carbon in organic compounds, the area of particular interest to the Dalibor Sames Laboratory.