Here’s what happened:
Polisci bro (UCLA PhD), while Asst Prof in the Govt dept at Harvard, tried to publish part of his dissertation in their top journal, and got rejected. Unconvincing paper, lots of non-significant and barely significant results. Around 2013, he changed his data, and previously non-significant results inexplicably became significant. In the revised version of the article, the only apparent change is the cutoff date, but his replication data suggest he must have both deleted and added observations beyond that. His dissertation, using the old version of the analyses, was removed from ProQuest at his request. He added some macro analyses (ecological inference stuff), which were probably requested by a reviewer. In these, more than 800 Chicago precincts in over 40 wards are missing. Side-by-side maps of official vs his replication data show that he deleted precincts that were unfavorable to his pet theories. Despite being noncompliant with the journal’s replication policy, somehow the article got published in 2016. The article was also reprinted as a chapter in a CUP book.
This dude’s tenure case was under review in 2018. The FAS dean at the time, Michael Smith, supposedly a computer scientist, was also chairing the committee on appointments and promotions in charge with reviewing this tenure case. Smith failed to detect the weird patterns in the data, and approved tenure. When Smith was informed of the misconduct, he swept it under the rug. Smith had announced a few months before he would step down, and that a FAS dean search would be conducted. To make sure he would get away with this embarrassing gaffe, instead of the scheduled FAS dean search, Smith impromptu appointed as his successor one of the main culprits in putting forward this dubious tenure case. The move was sold as a “diversity gain” to an unsuspecting then new president Bacow, who approved it.
Link to copy of leaked report:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i6oiujrv85s2q2z/RE_ResearchMisconduct.pdf?dl=0