It’s an academic train wreck.

NYU researchers have embarrassingly moved to retract a study about workplace violence faced by MTA workers because a survey of workers was posted publicly on Facebook – and trolls could have participated.

The retraction request — announced last week in a mea culpa by NYU — casts doubt on the shocking finding of the Biden administration-funded study that nearly 90 percent of New York City subway and bus workers said they had been assaulted or harassed.

The study’s lead investigator, Robyn Gershon, sent MTA officials a letter last week — obtained by The Post — saying researchers found “anomalies” in the data, including false zip codes provided by those surveyed.

“We learned that a link to our online survey was unfortunately posted on a public Facebook page on January 2, 2024 – an action not approved as part of our research – and we believe this allowed malicious respondents to enter the database,” Gershon wrote. .

“We also determined that our survey lacked safeguards to ensure that it was only taken by New York City transit workers to whom the survey was emailed,” Gershon added.

“In light of this, we have concluded that the database was likely contaminated and that the veracity of the data at the time of the Facebook post on January 2, 2024 is not verifiable.”

MTA officials blasted the research as flawed when it was released in August, arguing there was “no study” and claiming it only served to stoke panic.

Demetrius Crichlow, who has since been named president of New York City Transit, countered the claims, saying internal MTA data showed 11 percent of the workforce had been assaulted or harassed — a not-insignificant proportion, but still far from the overwhelming majority. supported by the NYU study.

“To be clear, we are not disputing that incidents of bullying and harassment happen — they do,” he wrote. “The MTA is following the cases closely and each one is despicable.”

MTA officials successfully pressured lawmakers to make assaulting transit workers a felony.

One such victim of transit violence is MTA worker Mohammad Quader, who said he still suffers panic attacks at work after a December 2022 attack in which a hooligan hit him in the head with a tool like a hammer.

“It happens almost every day,” Quader previously told The Post. “Most of them go unreported.”

Crichlow argued that the NYU research was distorted and contaminated by collecting responses based on volunteers.

NYU spokeswoman Rachel Harrison said the study’s researchers now agree that their online safeguards are inadequate.

“The researchers concluded — based on the vulnerability of the survey to responses from bots and/or people other than the intended recipients — that their data was compromised,” she wrote.

The researchers proactively asked the Journal of Urban Health to retract the study and notified the federal National Institutes of Health — which funded it — and NYU research watchdog groups about the problems, Harrison’s statement said.

Harrison did not return a request for further comment.

MTA officials, in response to a request for comment, directed The Post to Crichlow’s August letter.