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Informs that genetics researcher Francis Collins has discovered that a junior scientist in his lab, most likely Amitav Haija, fabricated data in a paper that went out for publication under Collins' name. Five additional papers in the literature to be corrected or withdrawn; Collins' standing in the scientific community; How the fraud was discovered; Comments from Collins. INSET: Doubts cast on leukemia papers..

The article reports that Norwegian oncologist Jon Sudbø, admitted this week through his attorney to falsifying data in three seminal papers published by top medical journals. The revelations have put on hold a multimillion-dollar oral cancer prevention trial, sponsored in part by the U.S. National Cancer Institute. The fraud is all the more unsettling given the recent fabrications by South Korean researcher Woo Suk Hwang in stem cell science. The papers reported that 26 of 27 individuals with aneuploid mouth lesions having abnormal numbers of chromosomes, developed aggressive oral cancer and were more likely to die of the disease than were those with other types of lesions. An immediate casualty of the fraud may be a 360-person trial of the anti-inflammatory Celebrex, along with another drug, in healthy people with aneuploid mouth lesions. Two reports were published in the March 20, 2005 issue of the "Journal of Clinical Oncology" and the October 15, 2005 issue of the journal "The Lancet."

Discusses a meeting of biomedical journal editors and researchers, which examined the current practice of peer review systems pertaining to research papers, as a result of controversies surrounding some recent questionable research results. Recommendations were made, but no consensus reached. INSET: Following the Royal Society's Lead.;Setting the record straight..

Explains that endocrinologist John McLachlan did not commit scientific fraud in a paper published in `Science' in 1996. Conclusion announced in this issue by Tulane University Medical Center, New Orleans, Louisiana; Failure of Steven Arnold's data to support conclusions drawn in the 1996 paper; The paper's work on a human estrogen receptor.

Reports the scientific misconduct committed by Jan Hendrik Schön, a physicist at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Number of faked experimental results; Question on the validity of papers coauthored by Schön; Educational and career background.

Reports that Thereza Imanishi-Kari has been cleared of 19 charges that she committed scientific misconduct in connection with a 1986 paper in the periodical `Cell.' Voiding of proposed ten-year funding sanction.

Reports on the federal Office of Research Integrity's (ORI) issuance of a long-delayed report concluding that immunologist Thereza Imanishi-Kari fabricated data in a 1986 paper on immune function in mice that she co-authored with Nobel prizewinner David Baltimore and four other researchers. Cover-up of allegations with additional fabrications; Implications of case for Imanishi-Kari's career and the ORI.

Reports on the hearing of the scientific misconduct case filed against Thereza Imanishi-Kari by the Department of Health and Human Service's (HHS) Office of Research Integrity (ORI) for falsifying and fabricating data for a 1986 paper in `Cell.' Conclusion made by the ORI after a two-year investigation; Imanishi-Kari's appeal of the ORI decision; Expectations for a ruling to be made by the end of 1995.

Reports on the scientific misconduct investigation of Tufts University immunologist Thereza Imanishi-Kari. Set-backs of the investigation; Accident in the shipping of forensic analysis data gathered by the Secret Service; Falsification of data supporting a 1986 paper published in `Cell'.