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Mostly Dismissed

A judge has dismissed most of the libel suit Ohio State University cancer researcher Carlo Croce brought against the New York Times last year, Retraction Watch reports.

The Times reported in March 2017 that Croce was facing allegations of research misconduct, and noted that previous allegations had led to investigations, but all of them had been closed. These instances included allegations of doctored images and falsified data within some of Croce's papers. Croce denied any wrongdoing, it noted.

Croce filed a lawsuit against the Times that said the paper's article was "riddled with venomous and defamatory falsehoods." It also challenged the number of papers of Croce's the Times said had been retracted — it counted 20 — but Croce and his lawyers said that included ones for which he was a middle author that he didn't supervise and thus weren't his.

Retraction Watch reports that the judge in the case didn't appear to accept that argument.

It adds that the judge also threw out all but one defamation claim. "Put in context, the article is an accurate and balanced report about Dr. Croce's research, his critics, and his and Ohio State's responses to the accusations against them," Judge James Graham wrote in his ruling, according to the Courthouse News Service.