Jonathan Pruitt

Jonathan Neal Pruitt is an American Associate Professor of behavioral ecology and the Canada 150 Research Chair in Biological Dystopias at McMaster University.[1][2] Pruitt's research focuses primarily on social spiders.[1] In early 2020, much of Pruitt's published research was identified as having serious data irregularities, and Pruitt was alleged to have fabricated research data.[3]

Jonathan Pruitt
Born
Jonathan Neal Pruitt

Florida
NationalityAmerican
Education
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisSociality in the Spider Anelosimus studiosus: Behavioral Correlates and Adaptive Consequences (2010)
Doctoral advisorSusan Riechert
Other academic advisors
  • Andy Sih
  • Jay Stachowicz
Websitepnb.mcmaster.ca/pruittlab/index.html

Pruitt worked at UC Santa Barbara before joining the faculty at McMaster in 2018.[4] His research was previously funded by the National Science Foundation.[4][5]

Concerns about the integrity of Pruitt's research first publicly emerged in January 2020.[6] In February 2020, McMaster University announced that it was reviewing 17 of his publications,[6] and 23 journals were reviewing publications by Pruitt.[4] By February 7, seven papers authored by Pruitt had been retracted or were in the process of being retracted.[6] Pruitt responded to the allegations by stating that the irregularities in his data were mistakes,[7] and he obtained legal counsel who cautioned journals and coauthors not to retract papers until institutional investigations were complete.[8]

Complete list of retracted publications
Paper title Year Originally Published Journal Link to paper retraction notice or statement
Linking levels of personality: personalities of the 'average' and 'most extreme' group members predict colony-level personality 2013 Animal Behaviour https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.05.030
The Achilles' heel hypothesis: misinformed keystone individuals impair collective learning and reduce group success 2016 Proceedings B https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0255
Individual differences in personality and behavioural plasticity facilitate division of labour in social spider colonies 2014 Animal Behaviour https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.09.015
Individual and Group Performance Suffers from Social Niche Disruption 2016 The American Naturalist https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/708066
Evidence of social niche construction: persistent and repeated social interactions generate stronger personalities in a social spider 2014 Proceedings B https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0077
Persistent social interactions beget more pronounced personalities in a desert-dwelling social spider 2014 Biology Letters https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0062
Behaviour, morphology and microhabitat use: what drives individual niche variation? 2019 Biology Letters https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0588
Female-Biased Sex Ratios Increase Colony Survival and Reproductive Output in the Spider Anelosimus studiosus 2018 The American Naturalist https://doi.org/10.1086/712483
Iterative Evolution of Increased Behavioral Variation Characterizes the Transition to Sociality in Spiders and Proves Advantageous 2012 The American Naturalist https://doi.org/10.1086/713144

Pruitt has been compared to Diederik Stapel and Jan Hendrik Schön, who were also considered rising stars in their fields before the discovery of their fraudulent publications.[9]

References
  1. Marcus, Author Adam (29 January 2020). "Authors questioning papers at nearly two dozen journals in wake of spider paper retraction". Retraction Watch. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  2. Chairs, Canada 150 Research (2017-05-08). "Canada 150 Research Chairs". www.canada150.chairs-chaires.gc.ca. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
  3. "McMaster University researcher under fire for data irregularities". Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  4. Pennisi, Elizabeth (31 January 2020). "Spider biologist denies suspicions of widespread data fraud in his animal personality research". Science. Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  5. "Jonathan Pruitt". 500 Queer Scientists. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
  6. Viglione, Giuliana (7 February 2020). "'Avalanche' of spider-paper retractions shakes behavioural-ecology community". Nature. 578 (7794): 199–200. Bibcode:2020Natur.578..199V. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00287-y. PMID 32047306.
  7. "Top Spider Biologist's Research Under Fire". The Scientist Magazine®. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  8. PennisiMar. 12, Elizabeth; 2020; Pm, 2:10 (2020-03-12). "Embattled spider biologist seeks to delay additional retractions of problematic papers". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2020-08-29.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. "Social Spiders and Science Fraud". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
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