Harvard University has officially revoked the tenure of Francesca Gino, a Harvard Business School professor known for her work on ethics and honesty, following longstanding allegations of data manipulation, a university spokesperson confirmed.
Gino, who was placed on administrative leave in 2023, faced multiple accusations of fabricating research data.
While Harvard declined to provide further details, citing its policy against commenting on personnel issues, Gino has not yet responded publicly.
According to The Harvard Crimson, Gino is likely the first Harvard professor to have tenure revoked since the 1940s, when formal guidelines on faculty termination were established by the American Association of University Professors.
Gino joined Harvard Business School in 2010 and served in several leadership roles, including leading the Negotiations, Organizations and Markets Unit from 2018 to 2021. Her work has been widely cited in major outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC News.
In 2021, three behavioral scientists who run the blog Data Colada began investigating a series of studies Gino had co-authored, eventually sharing what they claimed was evidence of data fraud with Harvard.
The university conducted an 18-month internal review and concluded that Gino had committed “research misconduct.” She was subsequently placed on unpaid leave in June 2023, stripped of her professorship title, and removed from all teaching and research responsibilities, according to a $25 million lawsuit she filed against Harvard and Data Colada.
The lawsuit alleges that Harvard created a new employment policy specifically for her case and that the disciplinary actions violated her tenure rights.
In September, a federal judge dismissed Gino’s defamation claims but allowed her contract-related claims against Harvard to proceed, per The Harvard Crimson.
Gino has launched a website dedicated to the case, where she maintains her innocence. In a March 2024 update, she wrote that although her lawyers advised against public statements, she insisted she had “never engaged in academic fraud” and promised to clear her name through legal proceedings with expert support she claims was denied during Harvard’s internal investigation.
