After allegations of data fraud were made against behavioral researcher Francesca Gino, the tenured professor was placed on a two-year, unpaid leave by Harvard Business School and barred from campus. She responded with a 100-page lawsuit in which she adamantly denies wrongdoing. Critics have met her complaint with derision. I’ll freely admit that parts of her claim leave me unpersuaded. But not all.
Gino pleads 12 separate counts, ranging from defamation to sex discrimination to violation of privacy, and these are the claims that have grabbed the headlines. My scholarly side, however, is intrigued by a less-noticed assertion: that in thus disciplining Gino, Harvard breached her contract. At the core of her allegations lies an issue with implications for both academic tenure and employment more generally.
Gino has spent the last two years battling charges — first raised by the blog Data Colada — that she manipulated data in some of the studies that made her famous. HBS appointed a faculty committee to look into the matter, and we wound up ... well, where we are.
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Before we go any further, let’s be clear. The allegations in the complaint are just that — allegations. Neither Harvard nor any other defendant has yet filed a formal response; certainly no court has made any findings of fact.
I’m not taking sides on who’s right about how Gino analyzed her data. Nor am I in a position to evaluate her troubling claim that when Harvard finds a...
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