That’s right.
If Jeanson has a legitimate point (beyond the rhetorical joy of publicly calling out “misconduct”) there are actually processes he really needs to go through to obtain a correction, and as a last resort, have misconduct investigated.
Misconduct is an extremely serious issue in science and it is more than merely making a citation or representation mistake. Going public about “research misconduct” before exhausting every other option is a major breech of ethics. I encourage Jeanson to look at the HHS’s Whistleblower’s Bill of rights and consider his ethical responsibilities:
Whistleblowers and other witnesses to possible research misconduct have a responsibility to raise their concerns honorably and with foundation.
Whistleblowers have a responsibility to participate honorably in such procedures by respecting the serious consequences for those they accuse of misconduct, and by using the same standards to correct their own errors that they apply to others.
Whistleblowers have a responsibility to act within legitimate institutional channels when raising concerns about the integrity of research.
Whistleblowers have a responsibility to facilitate expeditious resolution of cases by good-faith participation in misconduct procedures.
Every right carries with it a corresponding responsibility. In this context, the Whistleblower Bill of Rights carries the obligation to avoid false statements and unlawful behavior.
The key issue here is that it is a serious breech of ethics to make public accusations of research misconduct without satisfying these ethical responsibilities.
At this time, it seems clear that @Joel_Duff and @David_MacMillan can show, without doubt that, Jeanson is not acting within legitimate institutional channels. In this case, in a formal research misconduct investigation, it also seems that they could easily show that Jeanson is not following the same ethical standard he is applying to them, he did not give them opportunity to issue a correction, and he did not engage their response to his public charge of misconduct.
In my view, this departure from scientific norms should give any observer good reason to be alarmed by Jeanson’s behavior. If he really has evidence of misconduct, blow the whistle on them, and let legitimate channels adjudicate the misconduct.