UCLA researcher found guilty of misconduct

A researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles' Semel Institute for Neurosciences and Human Behavior faked interviews, tampered with data and urine samples, and stole money intended for study, according to a notice published this week in the Federal Register.

According to the notice, James Lieber, "knowingly and intentionally falsified" data over six months during a 2005 study, which was funded in part with National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants.

The study tracked female opiate addicts who had visited methadone clinics in Southern California during the late 1970s.


Lieber, 46, fabricated 20 face-to-face interviews with study subjects, and provided false urine samples for those subjects, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity (ORI), which investigated the events. Lieber, who was hired at UCLA in June 2005, also stole $5,180 in cash that was supposed to go to the study's participants as incentives and to cover travel expenses.

John Dahlberg, director of ORI's Division of Investigative Oversight, told The Scientist that Lieber's misconduct was brought to light on January 12, 2006, when he was reported to the University of California Police Department for stealing money intended for study participants and that "there were concerns that he had walked off with a laptop computer and other equipment." Later in the year, Dahlberg said, it became clear that Lieber had faked interviews because UCLA sent Christmas cards out to study participants that were returned as undeliverable. Five of the people Lieber claimed to have interviewed were dead at the time he claimed to have spoken with them.

Dahlberg said that the ORI learned of the case that June. "It took a number of months before we were able to bring it to a point to where we could deal with it," he said. "It was handled awkwardly by UCLA." Dahlberg said that action in the case was delayed by UCLA's policy of dealing with instances of research misconduct at the level of dean, who initially decided that the case did not warrant an investigation. Eventually, the case was reconsidered and an internal research integrity officer alerted ORI in June. "There's no question it was a very serious matter," Dahleberg told The Scientist.

According to Dahlberg, Lieber was uncooperative with investigators. "He, in fact, sort of disappeared" after the UC police were alerted in January. "We don't know where he is," said Dahlberg.

"The scope of what he did was probably larger than what UCLA was able to prove," said Dahlberg. "The concern is that almost everything [Lieber] had to do" with the study subjects he was assigned to interview was "unreliable."

In a statement e-mailed to The Scientist, vice chancellor of research at UCLA Roberto Peccei wrote that he learned of the misconduct in early 2006, convened a panel to conduct an internal review, and forwarded the results of that review to the ORI. Peccei also wrote that Lieber is no longer a UCLA employee.

Lieber could not be reached for comment.

The UCLA statement also says that, "none of the compromised or false data was published," and that the study continues with that data having been purged from the database.

The head researcher on the study was Christine Grella, a psychologist at UCLA's Integrated Substance Abuse Programs. Grille's research addresses mental health issues and substance abuse. Her most recent paper, published in July, described a study of the treatment needs of female prison inmates with substance abuse problems. Grella could not be reached for comment.

According to the notice in the Federal Register, ORI has implemented sanctions against Lieber, including a three year ban on working with any agency of the U.S. government and a prohibition on functioning in any advisory role to the U.S. Public Health Service.

Bob Grant
mail@the-scientist.com

Links within this article:

Semel Institute for Neurosciences and Human Behavior
http://www.npi.ucla.edu

Federal Register Notice
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net

Christine Grella
http://www.uclaisap.org/profiles/grella.html

CE Gella et al., "Treatment needs and completion of community-based aftercare among substance-abusing women offenders," Women's Health Issues, July -August 2007.
http://www.the-scientist.com/pubmed/17544296