A university in Australia that’s made headlines before over allegations of research misconduct has found itself in the news once again.
Last week, the University of Queensland (UQ) announced some of its authors were retracting a paper after discovering data were missing. Just days later, the university made headlines over an investigation into three papers about controversial therapies that were OK’d by UQ ethics committees.
The university announced the retraction via a press release, a practice it says it has maintained since 2013. The other story was revealed by a report in ABC News Australia, in which the university confirmed it is investigating alleged “undeclared conflicts of interest” in at least three papers. The research, which explores unproven therapies promoted by a controversial group called Universal Medicine, was approved by UQ’s ethics committees and led by Christoph Schnelle, who listed UQ as his affiliation; however, Schnelle and his coauthors failed to disclose their affiliations with Universal Medicine.
