Naoki Mori (森 直樹 Mori Naoki) is a Japanese virologist who worked at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. He received numerous awards for his research on human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), a retrovirus which causes adult T-cell leukemia.[1][2]
In 2010, RetractionWatch reported that 5 of Mori's papers had been retracted by the journal Infection and Immunity. The papers, which were published between 2000 and 2009, described studies on H. pylori.[2][3] Mori was banned from publishing articles in journals operated by the American Society for Microbiology after it was determined that he had manipulated data and images in a number of articles.[2] As of October 2011[update], thirty papers coauthored by Mori have been retracted,[4] including 5 from Infection and Immunity, 7 from the International Journal of Cancer, and 2 from Blood. Mori took "full responsibility" for "multiple inaccurate and inappropriately duplicated" images,[5] and was dismissed from his university post in August 2010.[2]