Weekend reads: Prof charged with $8 million research fraud; war on bullshit science; more Macchiarini fallout

booksThis week at Retraction Watch featured seven retractions in a long-running case involving cancer research, as well as the retraction of a paper claiming a link between a vaccine and behavioral issues. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Retractions Outside of the Scientific Literature

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2 thoughts on “Weekend reads: Prof charged with $8 million research fraud; war on bullshit science; more Macchiarini fallout”

  1. “The debate over Sci-Hub…”

    got a bit off topic at Scholarly Kitchen.

    More here (both pro and con) at

    “What should we think about Sci-Hub?”
    http://svpow.com/2016/02/22/what-should-we-think-about-sci-hub/

    at “Does Sci-Hub phish for credentials?”
    http://svpow.com/2016/02/25/does-sci-hub-phish-for-credentials/

    and at “Sci-Hub as necessary, effective civil disobedience”
    http://bjoern.brembs.net/2016/02/sci-hub-as-necessary-effective-civil-disobedience/

    1. I liked the Scholarly Kitchen piece. It did go off topic, especially when Elbakyan jumped into the discussion. Once again, Elbakyan shows off her ignorance but her comments demonstrate that she excels at diverting criticism. She played with her critics.

      What is rarely mentioned is that she takes donations – she mentioned this in her letter to Elsevier. Taking donations for stolen journal articles is acceptable in her mind.

      Did she ever pursue graduate work and, if so, did she complete it?

      The real victims in all of this is the research community with very limited access. Pirated sites are not sustainable.

      One benefit of Sci-Hub is that it highlights the people and organizations who have been working for years to reduce the access gap.

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