Academic's probe leaves questions unanswered

ON FRIDAY NIGHT, Hebei University of Science and Technology published the results of its investigation into claims associate professor Han Chunyu falsified his research results. ScienceNet, a website co-sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, comments:

Han, who published a paper on a new gene editing tool NgAgo in Nature two years ago, faced challenges because his experiment could not be replicated by others. His paper was withdrawn last August. The investigation by HUST came to four main conclusions: First, the withdrawn essay should not be published again. Second, there is no evidence showing Han or his team intentionally fabricated their data. Third, Han has positively returned all the honorary titles and benefits he got based on the paper. Fourth, the investment in Han's projects based on the paper has been withdrawn.

Let's analyze these one by one.

First, a paper submitted for publication must be based on true, original data. HUST did not make clear if this was the case.

Second, were the paper's findings accurate? Again it is not made clear.

Third, Han could return honorary titles, but some of the honorary titles have strict procedures for return. For example, he was given a title of "most excellent teachers of Hebei province" in August 2016. According to the regulation, the canceling should be followed by disciplinary penalty. Does that apply to Han?

Fourth, part of the invested money has already been spent on buying devices or constructing new buildings. As the investment is being withdrawn, how to return the money already spent?

In January 2017, HUST signed a co-working agreement with Novozymes from Denmark about the future use of NgAgo technologies, yet HUST did not mention that. Will that investment be canceled?

We hope that HUST will provide a clear answer to these questions. Han's incident is not his personal matter alone and the public have the right to know.