A professor who was accused of research misconduct has sued Harvard University and the authors of a blog who made the allegations. Francesca Gino, a tenured Harvard Business School professor who is a prominent and prolific researcher on leadership, decision-making and other topics, was accused in 2021 of manipulating data in a study about honesty, an irony not lost on the many reporters who have covered the scandal.

The 2012 paper, which said people were less dishonest when they signed forms before filling them out rather than after, was retracted by the journal. Gino has been placed on administrative leave at Harvard, and a blog written by scholars in her field of behavioral science, Data Colada, published new allegations in June, suggesting that more of her studies contain fake data.

Now Gino is speaking out to defend herself. According to her lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, she was warned the Harvard investigative process was strictly confidential and she could not advocate publicly on her own behalf. Previously, she had only issued a brief statement that said she was limited in what she could say publicly and was taking the allegations seriously. On Wednesday, she posted more on LinkedIn.

Gino wrote, “I want to be very clear: I have never, ever falsified data or engaged in research misconduct of any kind.” She also said she had no choice but to sue Harvard and the professors writing the blog “who worked together to destroy my career and reputation despite admitting they have no evidence proving their allegations. While claiming to stand for process excellence, they reached outrageous conclusions based entirely on inference, assumption, and implausible leaps of logic.”

The lawsuit contends that Gino never falsified or fabricated data, and that the university violated its own policies in its investigation of her work. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, claims defamation against all parties, breach of contract, bad faith and discrimination based on her gender against Harvard.

It names as defendants Harvard, its business school dean Srikant Datar, and three academics who collaborated on the blog entries alleging misconduct: Uri Simonsohn, a professor of behavioral science at Ramon Llull University in Barcelona, Leif Nelson, a professor of business administration at the University of California at Berkeley, and Joseph Simmons, a professor of applied statistics and operations, information and decisions at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mark Cautela, a spokesman for Harvard Business School, declined to comment. A spokesman for the university did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Harvard officials have not spoken openly about the case or released a report of findings. Simonsohn and Simmons did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening. Nelson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

In an earlier interview about the blog, before the lawsuit was filed, Nelson said, “My hope is that it makes people across our field be more vigilant in thinking about how to increase the integrity of what we do, to focus more and more steadfastly on the pursuit of truth.” Gino wants the defendants to correct the public record and claims damages of at least $25 million for lost income, reputational harm and emotional distress.

Accusations of research misconduct are frequently incendiary, putting the findings, career and reputation of a scholar on the line. And they are often difficult to prove, or disprove, because the raw data in question may no longer exist.

Many papers involve multiple authors and institutions, further complicating the questions of who did what when anomalies are found, and whether problems were intentional manipulation or innocent mistakes.

Proponents of websites such as PubPeer, an online forum that allows people to post questions about research studies anonymously, said they are helping to hold scholars accountable, ensure research integrity and correct the scientific record for future studies, even if authors, journals and institutions are reluctant to acknowledge errors.

Gino did extensive work as a behavioral scientist, including studies on honesty and cheating, which were covered in numerous stories in The Washington Post and other media outlets, with surprising findings that sparked headlines. She has consulted for major corporations and branches of the United States military.

Two years ago, the Data Colada blog looked into some papers where Gino was an author. Along with some researchers who worked anonymously, the three professors examined a study in the 2012 paper where she was an author. They wrote about anomalies they had found in the data. The paper was later retracted.

In July 2021, Simonsohn, Nelson and Simmons contacted Harvard about other papers Gino was an author of. Her lawsuit alleges that without her knowledge, Harvard and Datar negotiated an agreement with Data Colada in which the business school would investigate the allegations, using a new employment policy created for Gino.

According to her lawsuit, the investigation initiated by Harvard concluded that she was responsible for research misconduct. A university official requested further retractions from journals based on those findings, according to the lawsuit. But her lawsuit alleged the investigation had not found evidence of intentional misconduct, ignored exculpatory evidence and failed “to consider or give credence to credible witness testimony,” in violation of university policy.

None of her fellow authors and research assistants interviewed for the investigation said they had evidence of research misconduct, according to her lawsuit. The lawsuit also said that “in all of the studies in question, Dr. Gino did not run the studies or sort or handle the data,” and that there was no evidence that the culture of her lab “incentivized or motivated research assistants to manipulate data.”

In June, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Gino had been placed on administrative leave. Her lawsuit said she is on a two-year unpaid leave and is barred from campus. Also in June, Data Colada published four detailed blog posts about Gino, writing about “four studies for which we had accumulated the strongest evidence of fraud. We believe that many more Gino-authored papers contain fake data. Perhaps dozens.”

Of the retracted 2012 paper, the three professors described problems with data in two of its three studies, and wrote: “That’s right. Two different people independently faked data for two different studies in a paper about dishonesty.”

An attorney for Gino, Andrew T. Miltenberg, said in a statement: “Harvard’s complete and utter disregard for evidence, due process and confidentiality should frighten all academic researchers.” Miltenberg contended that a lack of integrity in the university review process stripped Gino of her rights, career and reputation.

Frances Frei, a professor of technology and operations management at Harvard Business School, said Gino had her career and life shattered without any proof she did anything wrong. “As a fellow professor and researcher, it is disturbing and frankly terrifying,” Frei said. “If this can happen to her, it can happen to anyone.”