Monash University investigates ethical ‘concerns’ over renowned economist’s Bangladesh research

Monash University’s ethics and integrity team is investigating ‘concerns’ over research carried out by renowned development economist Asad Islam.

Monash University is investigating ‘concerns’ over research carried out by renowned economist Professor Asad Islam.

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Monash University’s ethics and integrity team is investigating “concerns” over research carried out by renowned development economist Asad Islam.

It comes as his paper in the reputable European Economic Review about “parent-teacher meetings in Bangladesh” was last month ­retracted because of credibility ­issues, and recent concerns were raised by an international organisation, which reproduces and replicates studies, over the ­integrity of at least four other papers Professor Islam co-authored. Many more are under review.

The Australian understands Monash University has been investigating these ethical research concerns for some time.

Professor Islam has received millions of dollars in funding from organisations such as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and Centre for Economic Policy Research to carry out research about developing countries. He was also one of the chief investigators connected to a $35m grant to Monash from the ARC Centre of Excellence on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The research studies in question, which look at education, gender and rural communities in Bangladesh, were largely based on data collected by a local Bangladeshi NGO called the Global Development and Research ­Initiative.

The Australian understands Professor Islam founded GDRI more than a decade ago to facilitate field research in Bangladesh, however Monash University said he “holds no official position with GDRI and has not received any personal or material benefit from GDRI since its ­inception in 2010”.

GDRI is currently the subject of a forensic probe by an organisation called the Institute For Replication (I4R) – a collective of academics and researchers from around the world who reproduce and replicate papers in reputable scientific journals.

Publicly available I4R discussion papers for five of these studies, published in reputable economics journals and all of which have Professor Islam listed as an co-author, note “inconsistencies and irregularities” in raw data files, “implausible response patterns in the data”, results that are “not reproducible from the author-provided data”, and “serious concerns about the integrity of the data and the study design”.

The authors responded in one case to say that the “inaccuracies” noted by I4R did not affect the ­results.

On March 11, following one of these reports, Professor Islam’s 2019 study “Parent – teacher meetings and student outcomes: Evidence from a developing country” was retracted from the peer-reviewed academic journal European Economic Review.

Professor Islam was the sole author listed on the paper.

GDRI’s role was to implement monthly one-on-one parent-teacher meetings in 40 rural schools for two years with ­approval from Bangladesh’s Department of Primary Education.

“There are two reasons for this retraction,” a statement from publishing company Elsevier reads. “First, the article claimed to have done a randomised control trial. According to the replication file and confirmed by the author, this was not the case. Second, the procedures used to collect the data failed to adhere to the ethical standards of the journal.”

The editorial board of the journal thanked I4R for “bringing these issues to our attention”.

I4R’s original reproduction ­report states: “Our analysis uncovered several data irregularities that severely question the validity and, thus, the credibility of the original study’s findings.”

Professor Islam, in his ­response to I4R, accepted some issues in the randomisation of the study, saying it was “unintentional” and based on how the contractor grouped the schools. He defended the paper, however, saying its “internal validity was not compromised” and “the core conclusion – that parent-teacher meetings improve student outcomes – remains valid and well-supported”.

Professor Islam previously ­received $414,000 from the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in 2023 for research on gender norms in Bangladesh, implemented in collaboration with GDRI.

A Monash University spokesperson said it had “entered into a number of contracts for various research projects with GDRI”.

“None of the contracts have been executed by Professor Islam and no breaches of procurement policy have been noted in the contracting of GDRI.”

While these “concerns” were first publicly reported by RetractionWatch last week, The Australian understands Monash University had begun investigating Professor Islam well before then. Five more replication reports on GDRI-associated studies, which list Professor Islam as a second or third author, have been submitted to journals and will be publicly released once authors ­respond, The Australian understands. I4R chair and University of Ottawa associate professor Abel Brodeur told The Australian: “After being alerted about possible misconduct, the I4R are reproducing published papers that use data from a specific NGO (GDRI).”

I4R said on its website it hoped to reproduce 30 GDRI-linked studies and noted it had found “undisclosed connections between studies” including that “15 studies were connected (e.g., overlapping samples, overlapping interventions, reused treatment assignment)”.

A Monash University spokesperson said in a statement: “We are aware of concerns relating to some of professor Asad Islam’s research conducted in Bangladesh. Monash University Office of Research Ethics and Integrity has been actively investigating them and this process is ongoing.”

The Australian is not suggesting Professor Islam has acted inappropriately, only that his research is being investigated by Monash University. The Australian reached out to Professor Islam for comment but did not receive a response.