A federal judge has dismissed a Harvard business professor’s defamation lawsuit against three academic bloggers who critiqued her research.
The blog Data Colada was founded in 2013 by three social scientists: Uri Simonsohn, Leif Nelson, and Joe Simmons. According to the website, it’s posts “involve quantitative analyses, replications, and/or discussions of interest” to three members.
In 2021 the bloggers posted critical analyses of research done by Harvard Business Professor Francesca Gino. The posts suggested that at least four of Gino’s recent studies used falsified data. This triggered an investigation by the university.
Ultimately, Harvard concluded that Gino’s work contained manipulated data and placed her on administrative leave in June 2023.
Soon thereafter, Gino filed a lawsuit against both the university and the three bloggers. Among other things, her attorneys claimed that the bloggers falsely accused her of fraud and, consequently, damaged her reputation and career.
Citing the First Amendment, U. S. District Court Judge Myong Joun dismissed Gino’s case against the bloggers in its entirety.
One of the victorious bloggers, Joe Simmons, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Wall Street Journal:
This was an attempt to bully us into silence and a false apology. What this shows is that you can’t effectively use the legal system to do that.
At the start of the proceedings, researchers concerned about academic freedom formed a GoFundMe page to help pay the bloggers’ legal expanses. The page raised over $375,000. The Data Colada bloggers promised to donate the unused money to the Scientific Integrity fund.
The judge also dismissed several of the counts against Harvard. But Gino will can proceed against the university for breach-of-contract and gender-discrimination claims.