[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 48 (Friday, March 11, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14020-14021]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-05217]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary


Findings of Research Misconduct

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.

[[Page 14021]]


ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Findings of research misconduct have been made against Terry 
Magnuson, Ph.D. (Respondent), Kay M. & Van L. Weatherspoon Eminent 
Distinguished Professor, Department of Genetics, School of Medicine 
(SOM), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Respondent 
engaged in research misconduct in research included in one (1) grant 
application for U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) funds, specifically 
National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), 
grant application R01 CA267946-01A1. The administrative actions, 
including supervision from February 25, 2022-January 5, 2024, are 
detailed below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wanda K. Jones, Dr.P.H., Acting 
Director, Office of Research Integrity, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 
240, Rockville, MD 20852, (240) 453-8200.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is hereby given that the Office of 
Research Integrity (ORI) has taken final action in the following case:
    Terry Magnuson, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 
Based on the report of an assessment conducted by UNC, Respondent's 
admission, and additional analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight 
review, ORI found that Dr. Terry Magnuson, Kay M. & Van L. Weatherspoon 
Eminent Distinguished Professor, Department of Genetics, SOM, UNC, 
engaged in research misconduct in research included in one (1) grant 
application for PHS funds, specifically NCI, NIH, grant application R01 
CA267946-01A1.
    ORI found that Respondent engaged in research misconduct by 
intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly plagiarizing text from the 
following three (3) online articles and one (1) published paper:
    <bullet> Comprehensive Guide to Understanding and Using CUT&Tag 
Assay. November 4, 2020. https://www.activemotif.com/blog-cut-tag 
(hereafter referred as ``Blog cut&tag 2020'').
    <bullet> Complete Guide to Understanding and Using ATAC-Seq. 
February 9, 2021. https://www.activemotif.com/blog-atac-seq (hereafter 
referred as ``Blog ATAC-Seq 2021'').
    <bullet> Illumina CATCH-IT. https://www.illumina.com/science/sequencing-method-explorer/kits-and-arrays/catch-it.html (hereafter 
referred as ``Illumina Catch-it'').
    <bullet> Modeling Physiological Events in 2D vs. 3D Cell Culture. 
Physiology (Bethesda) 2017 Jul;32(4):266-277; doi: 10.1152/
physiol.00036.2016 (hereafter referred as ``Physiology (Bethesda) 
2017'').
    Plagiarized text was included in:

<bullet> Grant application R01 CA267946-01A1, ``Genome-wide dynamics of 
chromatin modifiers,'' submitted to NCI, NIH, on March 1, 2021 
(hereafter referred as ``R01 CA267946-01A1'')

    Specifically, ORI found that Respondent knowingly, intentionally, 
or recklessly plagiarized from:

<bullet> The introduction (p. 266) and techniques (p. 267) sections of 
Physiology (Bethesda) 2017 to compose subsection ``ii. Identifying 
changes to SWI/SNF composition driven by cell state changes'' of 
Specific Aim 1 of R01 CA267946-01A1
<bullet> the introduction and sections ``What is CUT&Tag'' and ``Before 
CUT&Tag, There Was CUT&RUN'' of Blog cut&tag 2020 to compose the 
``CHIP-seq protocols'' description in R01 CA267946-01A1
<bullet> the ``What is ATAC-Seq?'' section of Blog ATAC-Seq 2021 to 
compose the ``ATAC-seq protocols'' description in R01 CA267946-01A1
<bullet> the web page ``Illumina Catch-it'' describing the CATCH-IT 
technology to compose the ``Pitfalls & Alternatives'' section of 
Specific Aim 1 in R01 CA267946-01A1

    Dr. Magnuson entered into a Voluntary Settlement Agreement 
(Agreement) and voluntarily agreed to the following:
    (1) Respondent will have his research supervised from February 25, 
2022-January 5, 2024 (the ``Supervision Period''). Prior to the 
submission of an application for PHS support for a research project on 
which Respondent's participation is proposed and prior to Respondent's 
participation in any capacity in PHS-supported research, Respondent 
will submit a plan for supervision of Respondent's duties to ORI for 
approval. The supervision plan must be designed to ensure the integrity 
of Respondent's research. Respondent will not participate in any PHS-
supported research until such a supervision plan is approved by ORI. 
Respondent will comply with the agreed-upon supervision plan.
    (2) The requirements for Respondent's supervision plan are as 
follows:
    i. The respondent will submit his grant applications seeking PHS 
support to the Vice Dean, UNC SOM, thirty (30) days prior to the grant 
application submission deadline. The SOM Office of Research (OR) will 
review Respondent's grant applications to check for plagiarism and 
ensure compliance with acceptable scientific practice for citation of 
prior work. SOM OR will not recruit Respondent's supervisor or 
collaborators to review his grant applications. SOM OR will submit a 
report to ORI at six (6) month intervals setting forth the committee 
meeting dates and Respondent's compliance with appropriate research 
standards and confirming the integrity of Respondent's research.
    ii. SOM OR will conduct an advance review of any report, 
manuscript, or abstract involving PHS-supported research in which 
Respondent is involved. The review will include a discussion with 
Respondent of the primary data represented in those documents and will 
include a certification to ORI that the data presented and the text in 
the report, manuscript, or abstract is supported by the research record 
and not plagiarized.
    (3) During the Supervision Period, Respondent will ensure that any 
institution employing him submits, in conjunction with each application 
for PHS funds, or report, manuscript, or abstract involving PHS-
supported research in which Respondent is involved, a certification to 
ORI that the data provided by Respondent are based on actual 
experiments or are otherwise legitimately derived and that the data, 
procedures, and methodology are accurately reported and not plagiarized 
in the application, report, manuscript, or abstract.
    (4) If no supervision plan is provided to ORI, Respondent will 
provide certification to ORI at the conclusion of the Supervision 
Period that his participation was not proposed on a research project 
for which an application for PHS support was submitted and that he has 
not participated in any capacity in PHS-supported research.

    Dated: March 8, 2022.
Wanda K. Jones,
Acting Director, Office of Research Integrity, Office of the Assistant 
Secretary for Health.
[FR Doc. 2022-05217 Filed 3-10-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-31-P