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Citing an error in confidentiality protocols, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said today it has suspended some research privileges for the author of a widely debated study on casualties in post-invasion Iraq.

The inquiry by Hopkins into the study, published in the Oct. 16, 2004 edition of the British medical journal The Lancet, shed no light on methodological or disclosure questions that have swirled around the study. Hopkins said its review “did not evaluate aspects of the sampling methodology or statistical approach of the study.” And its statement did not comment on last month’s censure of the lead author, Dr. Gilbert Burnham, by the American Association for Public Opinion Research, charging nondisclosure of pertinent materials needed to assess the survey’s reliability. Burnham is not an AAPOR member.

(March 12 update: AAPOR today elaborated on its censure here.)

While upholding aspects of the survey – saying for example that the original, completed questionnaires “have the appearance of authenticity” – Hopkins said it found that the interviewers recorded the names of some respondents, contrary to the project design and in violation of the school’s research standards.

This identifying material “was never out of the possession of the research team,” and Hopkins said it found no evidence of harm to any participants. Nonetheless, it said, "Because of violations of the Bloomberg School’s policies regarding human subjects research, the School has suspended Dr. Burnham’s privileges to serve as a principal investigator on projects involving human subjects research."

Burnham’s 2006 report estimated 654,965 "excess deaths" in Iraq as a result of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. An earlier, 2004 report, in which Burnham also participated, estimated approximately 98,000 excess deaths to that point. Critics have questioned the sampling approach, the estimate of baseline deaths (necessary to compute an "excess" figure) and the number of deaths reported – in 2006, the equivalent of more than 500 a day for more than three years, far higher than other estimates.

Burnham did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

Check here for our report on the AAPOR censure, and here for the Hopkins release.