Professor Dirk Smeesters of the Erasmus University resigned after a study uncovered ‘irregularities’ in two of his papers.

Smeesters read Consumer Behaviour at the Rotterdam School of Management. The university accepted his resignation on June 21. The papers were withdrawn from scientific publications by the university, which stated in a press release today:

Two articles were found to have irregularities with findings that, in a statistical sense, are highly unlikely. The raw data forming the basis of these articles was not available for inspection by third parties, and the professor indicated that he had selected data so that the sought-after effects were statistically significant.

Last year professor Diederik Stapel from the University of Tilburg was suspended for making up pro-vegetarian research.

(Photo of the Erasmus University auditorium released into the public domain by Wikifrits.)