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Academic corruption linked to the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the urgency of strengthening transparency and accountability in African universities. Such corruption includes research malpractice, questionable research management, mismanagement of research funds and procurement fraud. Several university officials bypassed public procurement procedures for the purchase of materials and equipment for coronavirus research. 33 papers were identified as unsuitable for public use and either retracted, withdrawn, or noted with concern.

The Department of Justice arrested Texas A&M University (TAMU) engineering professor who allegedly conducted research for NASA hiding his affiliation and collaboration with a Chinese university and a Chinese-owned company for several years. He willingly accepted US funding and defrauded his university disregarding rules under NASA during his contract at TAMU.

The Swedish organization in charge of reviewing research has judged that scandal-hit surgeon was guilty of scientific misconduct for misleadingly describing synthetic trachea operations as successful in a series of research articles. In 2014, four doctors at Stockholm's Karolinska University Hospital reported him to the then president of the Karolinska Institute (KI) for allegedly distorting the facts about his operations with artificial tracheas when presenting them in scientific journals. The articles were subsequently reviewed in 2015 by Uppsala University surgical sciences professor, who concluded that Macchiarini was guilty of research misconduct, but KI's overall assessment was to clear him and the co-authors.