King's College London's enquiry into Hans J Eysenck's 'Unsafe' publications must be properly completed

Abstract

This journal recently drew attention to an extensive body of highly questionable research published by Hans J. Eysenck in collaboration with Ronald Grossarth-Maticek. The subsequent enquiry by King's College London concluded that 26 publications were unsafe and warranted retraction. However, the enquiry reviewed only a subset of the 61 questionable publications initially submitted to them, only those Eysenck co-authored with Grossarth-Maticek. The enquiry excluded publications where Eysenck was the sole author. The King's College London enquiry must be properly completed. They have a pressing responsibility to re-convene and broaden their review to include all Eysenck's publications based on the same body of research - including an additional 27 publications recently uncovered. The unsatisfactory nature of the KCL review process makes the case for a National Research Integrity Ombudsperson even stronger.

Keywords: H J Eysenck; King’s College London; enquiry; fraud; personality; smoking; unsafe papers.