Erick Jones Sr., who stirred controversy in February after he was accused of research misconduct, resigned as dean of the University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Engineering on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Acting Dean Indira Chatterjee will continue to lead the college pending appointment of a new dean.
Since April, Jones has been in employment limbo on campus, cut off from contact with other staff and faculty members and sidelined from his leadership duties while Chatterjee assumed the acting dean role. During this time, the university was to investigate Jones’ research through UNR’s Office of Research and Innovation and a process outlined in the faculty handbook.
UNR spokesperson Scott Walquist confirmed Jones’ resignation but did not provide any further information on the investigation or the circumstances of his departure. Jones’ wife, Felicia Jefferson, was also implicated in the research fraud. She began work as an associate professor in UNR’s biochemistry and molecular biology department in 2023 and ended her employment July 1.
Jones was accused of research misconduct related to journal articles he co-authored with his son, Erick Jones Jr., of the University of Texas at Arlington, and Jefferson. Statistician Andrew Gelman at Columbia University said he was tipped off to the Jones’s research articles by a blog reader.
The articles found to be suspect were published in a pay-to-play journal that the Joneses publish. The journal charges $199 for people to have their articles published, a requirement for many faculty members working in higher education.
Although the articles in the journal are listed as being peer-reviewed, no peers are listed, and articles submitted to the publication are published within days of submission, allegedly after being reviewed by others. Peer review of scientific research takes typically months and as much as a year or more.
Gelman and his readers noted the articles were “incoherent,” “content-free” and riddled with grammatical and factual errors.
Jones Sr. responded to Gelman’s comments in February, calling them unfair and noting that some of the articles were the work of students he worked with.
Jones began his tenure at UNR on Sept. 1, 2022, and was praised by UNR President Brian Sandoval as “a dynamic leader who understands how to seize moments of opportunity in order to further an agenda of excellence.”
Students and members of UNR’s chapter of the Nevada Faculty Alliance called for Jones’ resignation in February. NFA members said the hiring process for Jones was problematic and didn’t follow the university’s bylaws for appointments to leadership positions.
