McMaster researcher Pruitt has third paper retracted

A third academic article co-authored by McMaster University researcher Jonathan Pruitt has been retracted by a scientific journal.

The retracted article was published in the journal Biology Letters back in 2014, when Pruitt was at the University of Pittsburgh.

In January, articles co-authored by Pruitt were retracted by two other scientific journals

— The American Naturalist and the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Retractions are underway for five other scientific articles coauthored by Pruitt and retractions have been requested for another four of his articles, according to information provided by the editor-in-chief of The American Naturalist.

Pruitt indicated by email that he is unable to comment at this time. Pruitt, a highly-touted behavioural ecologist and holder of a prestigious Canada 150 Research Chair, is facing questions about whether or not he manipulated data that was passed on for other scientists to use in their own projects.

Some of Pruitt’s collaborators began investigating more closely and noticed anomalies with the data.

As a behavioural ecologist, Pruitt looks at the evolution of collective traits in a society and how they are influenced by the surrounding environment. He studies what happens when those environments change and how altering the makeup of a society impacts its ability to survive.

Just 34 years old, Pruitt is a prolific publisher of scientific articles and considered a rising star in the relatively small field of behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology.