Departing Stanford president retracts two Science papers after investigation

Marc Tessier-Lavigne stepped down as president of Stanford University in California on Friday 1 September and announced the retraction of two 2001 papers in the journal Science, after an independent investigation commissioned by the university found that images in the studies had been manipulated.

Tessier-Lavigne was not found to have committed research fraud, but the inquiry, led by a former judge, concluded that he had “failed to decisively and forthrightly correct mistakes in the scientific record” when concerns later emerged.1 He announced his plan to step down on 19 July and said in a statement at the time that he would retract three and correct two of the five …