Little Office of Research Integrity

W.D. Huang, B.J. Yang, and R.W. Smith, Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 96, 6213- 6219 (2004)

This paper was also published in the Annals of the New York academy of Science in 2004.  The annals paper is now retracted. 

Link to the retraction notice: R. W. Smith, B. J. Yang, and W. D. Huang. 2004. The Measurement of Solute Diffusion Coefficients in Dilute Liquid Alloys: The Influence of Unit Gravity and G-Jitter on Buoyancy Convection. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1027: 110–128.

 Data Fabrication and Falsification

Temperature values given in Table I for gold-lead samples processed under isolation conditions are fabricated.

 According to the Final Report that Smith submitted to the Canadian Space Agency in 2000, temperatures could not be measured in space (see p.92).

According to the Final Report (p.92), it was hoped that the oxide film on the tubes would provide specific information about the furnace temperature, the treatment time, and the degree of container insertion into the furnace.

The subjective and private procedure that was used to determine the processing time and temperatures is not disclosed in the published paper. An accurate account of the research performed is not presented.

The scientific community has been led to believe that temperatures given in the published paper are real temperatures and were scientifically measured in the MIR space station. But according to Smith, "the only method which remained was visual comparison" (p.97).

In the Final Report, Smith concludes on page 101 that the experimental results from lead-gold diffusion couples (sample # 1, 2,3, and 4) should be of “particular concern” . But this serious concern is not disclosed in the published paper.

 Data presented in Table I for sample #2, 3, 4, and 5 are fabricated. It is not possible to determine the temperature of samples by visual inspection. 

Results presented in Table II of this paper are also misleading. The authors claim that diffusion coefficients for silver in lead (Pb-Ag) were measured in microgravity with the g-jitter suppressed. This claim is not true.

The flight records obtained from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) show that the crew members on board MIR did not perform the experiments that the authors describe in the paper. The results presented in Table II and the conclusions of the paper are all misleading.

 Data shown in Fig. 7 are fabricated

Temperature values reported in  Fig. 7 with two decimal points (and 5 significant figures!) are made up.  Radial temperatures were not be measured or calculated. Graphs in Figure 7 are hand-drawn without any real data.

See allegations related to the same paper in 2005 here and here.

See allegations of research misconduct in 2009 related to the same paper here.

CSA should correct the records for the scientific community.