Harvard University has revoked the tenure of Francesca Gino, a renowned researcher at its business school who has been accused of falsifying research data in several scientific articles. It is a historic punishment. According to the institution’s student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, no other professor at the university has ever had their tenure status revoked since the 1940s, when the rules were created to protect the autonomy of faculty members and guarantee them job stability.
A behavioral scientist known for her studies on dishonesty, Gino was one of the five highest-paid employees at Harvard—in 2018 and 2019, her annual salary was over US$1 million. In 2021, she was accused of falsifying data in an article that was later retracted. The following year, Harvard Business School opened an 18-month investigation into misconduct. The conclusion was that she intentionally committed misconduct and she was consequently placed on unpaid administrative leave in 2023.
Around the same time, investigative blog Data Colada accused Gino of committing data fraud in three more research papers she coauthored. One of them, which described an association between lying and creativity, only reached the conclusion after having altered the data. The investigators’ report also recommended that the university initiate proceedings to revoke her tenure, which it has now done.
The story above was published with the title “Unprecedented punishment for Harvard behavioral scientist accused of falsifying data” in issue 353 of July/2025.
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