PITTSBURGH – Two University of Pittsburgh researchers who were among five co-authors of a 2013 published research article on obstructive pulmonary disease are suing a medical journal over the retraction of their article and claiming the publication accused them of manipulating data.
According to the Aug. 15 Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas filing, plaintiffs Aravind Tarugu and Dr. Raju Reddy filed a civil action against the Journal of Biological Chemistry and American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology alleging defamation.
"Mr. Tarugu and Dr. Reddy bring claims against defendants sounding in defamation, which causes of action arise from defendants' publication of false and defamatory statements which accuse Mr. Tarugu and Dr. Reddy of falsifying data in an academic research article published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, as well as causing each to suffer significant mental anguish and personal humiliation," the plaintiffs' complaint states.
Reddy, who serves as a visiting associate professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and the chief of the school's Pulmonary Division - Department of Veteran Affairs for Pittsburgh Healthcare System (VAPHS), and his colleague, Tarugu, were co-authors of the research article and had faced an inquiry and investigation into their study by the University and VAPHS.
The suit states the defendants retracted the article and published a retraction in December 2018.
"The ASBMB abused its status as a conditionally privileged entity when it negligently published the retraction," the lawsuit states. "Given the overwhelming data and contrary detailed and rigorous Image Analysis provided by the Authors, a reasonable prudent person under the circumstances would have engaged with the Authors in good faith and sought to engage in an open evaluation of the data and analysis presented, prior to publishing the Retraction," the plaintiffs claim in their suit.
The plaintiffs seek damages in excess of $35,000 and other relief.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs are James McNally and Jonathan Cass of Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC in Pittsburgh.