Let Duke’s Research Fraud Settlement Be a Lesson

It cost Duke University more than $112 million to clean up a mess brought on by a researcher who falsified data to get National Institutes of Health grant funding. Research fraud cases are rare, but that doesn’t mean institutions should let down their guard, attorneys say.

• Anyone Can Whistle: The incentive for insiders to blow the whistle is high, given that they share a portion of the settlement. The Duke whistleblower is entitled to 30 percent of the government’s take.

• More Monitoring: The Justice and Health and Human Services departments are closely scrutinizing grantees to ensure they use the funding ...