Naoki Mori (森 直樹, Mori Naoki) is a Japanese virologist who is a professor at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.^[1] He has received numerous awards for his research on human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), a retrovirus which causes adult T-cell leukemia.^[2][3]

In 2010, Retraction Watch reported that five of Mori's papers had been retracted by the journal Infection and Immunity.^[4] (The New York Times later put that figure at six.)^[5] The papers, which were published between 2000 and 2009, described studies on H. pylori.^[3][6] Mori was banned for ten years 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that he had manipulated data and images in a number of articles.^[3] By October 2011, 30 papers coauthored by Mori had been retracted, including five from Infection and Immunity, seven from the International Journal of Cancer,^[7] two from Blood, and one from Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications titled "Downregulation of citrin, a mitochondrial AGC, is associated with apoptosis of hepatocytes".^[8][9] Mori took "full responsibility" for "multiple inaccurate and inappropriately duplicated" images,^[10] and was dismissed from his university post in August 2010.^[3]

Mori contested his dismissal in court, and the University of the Ryukyus instead imposed a 10-month suspension.^[11] Mori was rehired in March 2011 and had resumed publishing by April 2012^[12] with a research paper titled "Honokiol induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis via inhibition of survival signals in adult T-cell leukemia".^[13]