On the 31st, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) dismissed a researcher for disciplinary reasons for his involvement in fabricating and falsifying 42 papers. One staff member was also suspended from work for one month for being the author responsible for the papers that contained misconduct. The names of the researcher and staff member and the groups to which they belonged have not been disclosed.

In March, AIST announced that Naohiro Kameda, then senior principal researcher at the Nanobiomaterials Application Group, had committed fraud in 42 papers published between 2007 and 2022. Kameda had engaged in fraudulent conduct, including showing scale bars representing the scale of figures at a different size than they actually were.

AIST commented, “We deeply regret this incident. We will work to prevent it from recurring.”