Investigation into the research of Milena Penkowa - Nyheder

We thus agree with Dr. Penkowa that we have not, in a legal context, proven the suspicions
of scientific dishonesty raised in our investigation report. In fact, we do not consider it
possible in the framework of our investigation to have applied general legal principles of
“burden-of-proof” for our suspicions about scientific dishonesty of Dr. Penkowa.
However, we conclude that we have found legitimate grounds, and documented these to a
sufficient extent, for raising the suspicions of scientific dishonesty indicated in section 4.4 of
the report and summarised in section 1.3.
3. The Panel’s access to material
In addition the Panel has noted that Dr. Penkowa states that (annex 1.1 p. 15):
“It remains a fact that the Panel was not provided with decent working conditions.
Accordingly, the contents of the report are based upon assumptions, guessing and
uncertainty as to what sections and tissues belong to which project, not to mention which
publication. Even worse, the Panel has not been able to get access to all relevant material,
since substantial amounts of evidence still remain to be registered by the University.”
We have not been able to prove the connections between the primary material found and
analysed by us and the publications for which we have raised suspicion of scientific
dishonesty of Dr. Penkowa. As indicated further above it has not been the intention of the
investigation that the Panel should provide such proof.
However, for a number of the papers for which we raise suspicion of scientific dishonesty in
the report, we have shown that the analysed material is connected with the papers with
some probability. We do not find adequate basis for determining the exact size of this
probability, only that we find it sufficient for assessing that the analyses of the primary
material supports, or does not abolish, our grounds for suspecting dishonesty.
Concerning whether we have had access to the complete material from Dr. Penkowa’s lab
and office, we have noted the statements of Dr. Penkowa about the incompleteness of the
archive. Similarly we have noted the statements of the University of Copenhagen regarding
this issue. Finally we have indeed noted that the University has found further material,
including the minus 80 degrees freezer, as late as in April-May, and we cannot exclude that
additional material may exist which has not yet been brought to the archive.
However it is not within the framework of our investigation to make any decision or
judgement as to whether the archive holds the complete set of items from Dr. Penkowa’s lab
and office as of the time when she left them, and/or whether the lack of structure of the
archive reflects a lack of structure in Dr. Penkowa’s previous lab and office. In the framework
of our investigation, we find the material found and analysed by us to be sufficient
documentation for the suspicions of scientific dishonesty raised in our report, regardless of
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