Weekend reads: The scale of misconduct in China; toxic peer reviews; license to publish?; an editorial revolt

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The week at Retraction Watch featured a researcher at Northwestern who’s up to five retractions; a retraction because editors found it implausible that a researcher could perform a clinical trial single-handedly; and seven retractions at once when a researcher blamed a flood for lost data. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

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2 thoughts on “Weekend reads: The scale of misconduct in China; toxic peer reviews; license to publish?; an editorial revolt”

  1. ‘Anonymous sources told Balter that even before the incident, Hublin had “a sleaze-ball reputation,” that he had made sexual advances on other women…’
    Sure, such a fellow must definitely be fired. We can’t have that, now, can we? I mean, if anonymous sources can’t just kick somebody out of a job because they don’t like his reputation, where are we heading to?

  2. “If we put in place a rigid set of requirements that submissions must meet to be eligible for publication in [Psychological Science], we risk losing the very diversity we hope to attract.” – Surely if a submission isn’t suitable for publication, you don’t want it in the first case? Rigid requirements and standards are a good thing.

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