University of Lisbon investigation that spawned neuroscience retractions found no evidence of misconduct

Yesterday, we reported on two retractions in the Journal of Neuroscience whose notices referred to a University of Lisbon report that had determined there was  “substantial data misrepresentation” in the original articles.  The notice didn’t say anything about misconduct, but when we see “misrepresentation,” we tend to think — as do many others — that there had been funny business.

But we heard back this morning from the senior author of the study, Ana M. Sebastião, and there’s a lot more to this story. It turns out that the University of Lisbon committee that wrote the report concluded, unanimously, that

University of Lisbon finds “substantial data misrepresentation;” two Journal of Neuroscience papers retracted

A University of Lisbon investigation has prompted two retractions in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The papers share a few authors, including senior author Ana M. Sebastião. Here’s the notice for the first paper: