Francesca Gino, a well-known behavioral scientist once one of the highest-paid employees at Harvard University, lost her tenure and was fired after a lengthy investigation into claims that she manipulated and fabricated data in several of her research papers.
The case lasted almost four years and included a complicated series of accusations, investigations, legal disputes, and, in the end, a rare decision to revoke tenure, something Harvard had not done in many years.
Gino, famous for studying dishonesty and ethical behavior, ironically became the center of a major academic scandal. According to The Crimson, the first concerns came up in 2021 when a data analysis blog called Data Colada published posts suggesting that one of Gino’s co-authored studies contained fake data. This study claimed that putting honesty pledges at the start of a form made people answer more truthfully, but it was later retracted when evidence showed the data had been fabricated.
Data Colada later found similar problems in three more of Gino’s studies, which led Harvard to start a formal investigation in October 2021. The investigation, which continued through 2022 and 2023, included interviews with Gino and her research partners, reviews of her data, emails, and manuscripts, and hiring an outside forensics company to examine the data, per the NY Post. Investigators determined that Gino had altered observations to strengthen her research findings, contradicting her claims that mistakes by research assistants or deliberate tampering were to blame.
Harvard gets rid of professor over data manipulation
Harvard presented its findings to the Dean of Harvard Business School in March 2023. After the report, Gino was placed on unpaid leave, and the process to fire her began. The situation drew even more attention because of Gino’s high salary. Records show she was one of Harvard’s top five highest-paid employees in 2018 and 2019, earning over $1 million each year. This large paycheck made the public even more interested in the case, especially given the accusations against her.
Gino responded quickly to the allegations, strongly denying any academic misconduct on her website and filing a $25 million lawsuit against Harvard, Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar, and the Data Colada bloggers. She accused them of defamation and claimed the investigation and her unpaid leave damaged her reputation, caused her to lose income, and hurt her career.
Star Harvard business professor stripped of tenure, fired for manipulating data in studies on dishonesty https://t.co/DeGmEC14IE pic.twitter.com/RRFtvGfkL6
— Mikael Covey (@LitUpMagazine1) May 27, 2025
Gino’s legal efforts had mixed results. In September 2024, a federal judge in Boston dismissed her defamation claims, ruling that as a public figure, her work could be scrutinized under the First Amendment.
Other parts of her lawsuit continued, including her claim that Harvard treated her unfairly when disciplining her, violating its own tenure policies. She later added Title VII and discrimination claims to the lawsuit. This is all while Harvard has to deal with the Trump Administration lawsuit and possibly losing its tax exempt status.
Despite her legal fight, Harvard’s investigation ended with the decision to revoke Gino’s tenure. The university confirmed that the Harvard Corporation made this decision earlier in May 2025, marking a historic moment as the first time in decades that Harvard had taken away a professor’s tenure.
