Ivan Oransky is an American physician, medical researcher, and journalist known for his advocacy of

scientific integrity Research integrity or scientific integrity is an aspect of research ethics that deals with best practice or rules of professional practice of scientists. First introduced in the 19th century by Charles Babbage, the concept of research integrity ca ...

through improved tracking and institutional reforms. His opinions and statistics on scientific misconduct have been described in the media.

Education and career

Oransky has a bachelor's degree from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

, where he was executive editor of

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students. His ...

. He has an

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

from the

New York University School of Medicine The New York University Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, the other being the NYU G ...

, where he was the editorial director of

MedPage Today MedPage Today is a medical news-focused site owned by Ziff-Davis, LLC. It is based in New York City, and is geared primarily toward medical and health professionals. History The news service MedPage Today was founded by Robert S. Stern in Mar ...

. Oransky has been a vice president of editorial at

Medscape Medscape is a website providing access to medical information for clinicians and medical scientists; the organization also provides continuing education for physicians and other health professionals. It references medical journal articles, Con ...

, executive editor of

Reuters Health Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

, managing editor, online, of

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

, and deputy editor of The Scientist. From 2017 to 2021, he was president of the

Association of Health Care Journalists The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. Its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writ ...

. Oransky co-founded

Retraction Watch Retraction Watch is a blog that reports on retractions of scientific papers and on related topics. The blog was launched in August 2010 and is produced by science writers Ivan Oransky (Former Vice President, Editorial ''Medscape'') and Adam Ma ...

, a blog reporting scientific retractions, is a writer in residence at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

's Arthur Carter Journalism Institute, and Editor in Chief of ''

The Transmitter ''The Transmitter'' is an online publication dedicated to neuroscience research news and commentary. Aimed at professionals from across the neuroscience discipline, the website is an editorially-independent publication of the Simons Foundation. ...

''.

Awards

In 2015, Oransky received the

American Medical Writers Association The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) is a professional association for medical communicators, with more than 4,000 members in the United States, Canada, and 30 other countries. AMWA is governed by a board of directors composed of the ele ...

's John P. McGovern Award for excellence in biomedical communication.

Publications and public talks

In 2011, Oransky and Adam Marcus coauthored an article in

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

pointing out that the

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...

process for scholarly publications continues long after the publication time. In 2014, Oransky coauthored an article in ''Nature'' that describes how several authors were caught reviewing their own papers. In 2012, Oransky gave a talk at

TEDMED TEDMED is an annual conference focusing on health and medicine, with a year-round web-based community. TEDMED is an independent event operating under license from the nonprofit TED conference. Background , TEDMED staff operates from Stamfor ...

titled "Are we overmedicalized?" In 2018, Oransky and Marcus profiled in ''Science'' magazine two researchers whose investigative work to find inconsistencies in published data has been instrumental in catalyzing retractions. In August 2023, Oransky and Marcus coauthored op-eds in

and

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

. In the wake of the resignation of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

president

Marc Tessier-Lavigne Marc Trevor Tessier-Lavigne (born December 18, 1959) is a Canadian-American neuroscientist. He served as the 11th president of Stanford University from 2016 to 2023 and the 10th president of Rockefeller University in New York City from 2011 to ...

, Oransky and Marcus suggested that scientific misconduct is more common than is reported. They also assess that, despite recent scandals involving research misconduct, the academic community is uninterested in exposing wrongdoing and scientific errors, but that all members of the academic community are responsible for the delays and lack of action.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oransky, Ivan Living people Year of birth missing (living people) New York University alumni Harvard University alumni 21st-century American journalists Scientific misconduct