Scientific Misconduct Charge Ruled Valid

     COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An Ohio State University faculty committee
investigating charges of scientific misconduct against a senior
chemistry researcher has determined the charges to be valid.

     Earlier this year, the National Science Foundation informed
the university of the charges against Leo Paquette, professor of
chemistry, and requested that the university initiate an
investigation.  The allegations involved questions of plagiarism
regarding introductory material he had included in a research
paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
None of the allegations involved falsification of data or
fabrication of research results.

     The committee concluded that Dr. Paquette had included in
that introduction background information he had received as a
reviewer of a grant proposal to the NSF without attributing the
information to its author.  NSF regulations require reviewers to
safeguard the information they receive as participants in the
peer review process.

     Dr. Paquette strongly denies the allegations and asked Joan
Huber, former vice president for academic affairs and provost, to
review the committee's report.  Huber agreed with the committee's
findings.  Therefore, the university is taking the following
actions based on the committee's recommendations:

--   Dr. Paquette will be barred from participating in the peer
review of confidential scientific proposals during his employment
by the university;

--   The Department of Chemistry will consider whether to allow
Dr. Paquette to continue to supervise the research of graduate
students and postdoctoral associates.

     In addition, the university is informing the NSF of the
committee's findings regarding Dr. Paquette; apologizing to the
author of the NSF proposal in question and to the Journal of the
ACS; and informing Dr. Paquette's co-authors of the journal
article in question that the university's investigation in no way
implicated them with the charges.

     The Office of Academic Affairs will also initiate separate
proceedings against Dr. Paquette under university rules
concerning faculty misconduct to determine whether disciplinary
sanctions are appropriate.  Under university guidelines for
investigating scientific misconduct, the only actions that can be
taken are those necessary to protect research.

     This is the second time Dr. Paquette has been found by a
university committee to have engaged in scientific misconduct.  A
separate faculty investigating committee determined in 1992 that
he had plagiarized material from another researcher's grant
application in his own proposal for research support.

     In that case, the U.S. Public Health Service's Office of
Research Integrity ruled that Dr. Paquette should be barred from
serving on Public Health Service committees, boards and review
groups for 10 years, and that any research proposals submitted by
him be certified by the university.

                                #

Contact:  Malcolm Baroway (614) 292-6895.


[Submitted by: GERSTNER  (gerstner@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Mon, 09 Aug 93 09:45:15 EST]
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