Harvard Research Fraud Probe Sparks $25 Million Defamation Suit

Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino is suing the university for allegedly defaming and discriminating against her in its investigation of her research.

The university launched an 18-month investigation into the tenured professor’s work after a blog called Data Colada expressed concerns that data in four of her studies could have been fraudulent, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Gino is a widely-published behavioral scientist who studies the psychology of decision-making. Although Gino denies falsifying or fabricating data, the university found she committed research misconduct and placed her on unpaid ...