How Not to Conduct an Investigation

Abstract

The first and most extensive investigation of the Sobells’ alleged fraud was conducted by the Dickens Committee appointed by the Sobells’ employer at the time allegations of misconduct appeared (Boffey, 1982), the Addiction Research Foundation, a state supported research and treatment foundation in Toronto, Canada. Chairman of the Committee, Bernard M. Dickens was a professor of law at the University of Toronto, as well as a professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, and a member of the Graduate Faculty in Law, Criminology, and Community. A second member was Anthony N. Doob, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto and Director of its Center of Criminology. He was also a member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Addiction Research Foundation. O. Harold Warwick, M.D. was the third member of the Committee, a professor emeritus of the University of Western Ontario. William Charles Winegard, a physicist and former President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guelph was the final member of the Committee. It was a distinguished group, in the sense that all had illustrious careers within their professions. None, however, had any apparent experience in the investigation of fraud in science or in the conduct of treatment outcome studies.