2014 – Page 52 – Retraction Watch

Alleged faked heart tests “might affect inclusion of data” in study led by UCSF

Parag Patel with Girl Scouts, Kenya, via FICCS

We have an update on the case of Parag Patel, the Park Ridge, Illinois cardiologist whom the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) said “engaged in research misconduct by directing or intimidating fellows and others to influence” test results so that patients would be eligible for a clinical trial.

A spokesperson for the clinical trial’s sponsor, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), tells us: Continue reading Alleged faked heart tests “might affect inclusion of data” in study led by UCSF

Authors of controversial STAP stem cell study author correct 2011 paper

There have been a number of developments in the unraveling of two Nature studies out of the RIKEN Institute in Japan and Harvard purporting to show an easy way to create stem cells. There was an interim report of RIKEN’s investigation last Friday, and more details emerged this week.

And today, the Japan Times reported that last week, a correction of a 2011 paper by many of the same authors appeared in Tissue Engineering Part A. Here’s the correction notice, dated March 13: Continue reading Authors of controversial STAP stem cell study author correct 2011 paper

Nature paper by researcher found to have violated academic integrity retracted

A 2013 paper in Nature that was among those whose first or last author had committed a “violation of academic integrity,” according to Utrecht University, has been retracted.

Here’s the notice: for “CLASP-mediated cortical microtubule organization guides PIN polarization axis,” whose corresponding author was Pankaj Dhonukshe: Continue reading Nature paper by researcher found to have violated academic integrity retracted

Final report in Smeesters case serves up seven retractions

Erasmus University in Rotterdam has issued its final report on psychologist Dirk Smeesters, concluding that the former Erasmus faculty member had committed research misconduct in a total of seven papers. Three of those articles already have been retracted in the case, as we reported in December 2012.

The committee investigation is in fact a follow-up inquiry — thus its name, the Smeesters Follow-Up Investigation Committee — prompted by concerns that an initial probe was incomplete. According to the report, the four-member panel conducted an “in-depth analysis” of every paper Smeesters, who left the university’s Rotterdam School of Management in July 2012, was “actively” involved in. That turned out to be 22 articles (not including three others already retracted).

The final report is worth reading, presented here as a pdf. The four articles are: Continue reading Final report in Smeesters case serves up seven retractions

SK Sahoo notches sixth retraction

Chemist Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo, of the Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar, India, has earned his sixth retraction for image shennanigans, this time in Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Sahoo, as we reported last year, had lost five articles in Acta Biomaterialia for what the journal called “highly unethical practices.”

The latest retraction involves an article titled “Composite Polymeric Magnetic Nanoparticles for Codelivery of Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Anticancer Drugs and MRI Imaging for Cancer Therapy,” which first appeared online in 2011 in AM&I, a publication of the American Chemical Society.

The paper has been cited 40 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge. According to the abstract: Continue reading SK Sahoo notches sixth retraction

Journal editors, an NIH bioethicist wants to hear your experiences with retractions

David Resnik, a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) bioethicist who has published on retractions and corrections, is apparently hoping to do so again. In a request for information that went out from the NIH last week, Resnik seeks: Continue reading Journal editors, an NIH bioethicist wants to hear your experiences with retractions

Researcher intimidated trainees into faking heart test results: ORI

A cardiology researcher in Illinois coerced trainees to fake the results of a heart test so that patients would qualify to enter a clinical trial, according to a new finding by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI).

Here’s an excerpt from the ORI’s notice about Parag V. Patel, of Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, in Park Ridge, Illinois: Continue reading Researcher intimidated trainees into faking heart test results: ORI

Author who broke into lab to tamper with investigation now up to half a dozen retractions

Karel Bezouška, the scientist who tried to tamper with an investigation into his work by breaking into a lab refrigerator, has had his fifth and sixth papers retracted.

Here’s the notice from Bioconjugate Chemistry for 2012’s “Dimerization of an Immunoactivating Peptide Derived from Mycobacterial hsp65 Using N-Hydroxysuccinimide Based Bifunctional Reagents Is Critical for Its Antitumor Properties:” Continue reading Author who broke into lab to tamper with investigation now up to half a dozen retractions

Dear Retraction Watch readers: We want to grow. Here’s how you can help

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How will we use the money? Continue reading Dear Retraction Watch readers: We want to grow. Here’s how you can help