Former dean of Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Dr. Joseph Shapiro, has had his 6th research paper retracted in less than a year. 

Shapiro, who stepped down from his position as dean last June, received his first retraction last September, according to Retraction Watch. After stepping down, Shapiro moved into a tenured professor position within the medical school. 

The most recent retraction from October came after editors said they “have lost confidence in the integrity of the data presentation” in the paper. 

“The issues with the images in the paper were corrected after they were brought to the authors’ attention. The allegations of image manipulation in PubPeer were false. Additionally, none of the issues raised affected the conclusions in the paper. Dr. Shapiro and the other authors submitted a corrected study to the publication, which declined to accept the corrections. The authors are disappointed by the editorial decision and remain committed to the paper, which will be submitted to another journal for publication,” Marc Williams, Dr. Shapiro’s attorney, said in a statement to The Parthenon.

After receiving his 5th retraction, he received an “expression of concern” in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, saying that his article relied heavily on data from three already retracted articles. 

 Marshall University has undergone an internal investigation into Dr. Shapiro’s research conduct, which will not be public. 

A spokesperson from Marshall University gave a statement on the status of the investigation. 

“An internal investigation was completed under the auspices of the Division of Investigative Oversight at the Office of Research Integrity, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and was submitted for review. As the investigation is designed to protect the integrity of the research process and the university researchers, no final conclusions have been drawn regarding the presence or absence of misconduct as we are awaiting DHHS’s final review. Further, given this is a personnel matter, there will be no other comment.”