Kathy Partin is to be the next head of the US Office of Research Integrity, Retraction Watch says, noting that the Report On Research Compliance first reported the appointment.
Partin, a neuroscientist and administrator at Colorado State University, is to take over the top spot toward the end of the month.
The post, ScienceInsider notes, has been vacant for about a year and a half, ever since David Wright left ORI in March 2014 after two years. Wright had become disenchanted with the bureaucracy of the agency, it says. In his resignation letter, he lamented the "remarkably dysfunctional HHS bureaucracy" as Retraction Watch says. ScienceInsider adds that outsiders have also criticized the office's slow pace and light punishments for infractions.
Retraction Watch adds that Partin has taken part in misconduct investigations as a faculty member and as an administrator since 2002. She tells ScienceInsider that she is looking "forward to this amazing opportunity."