‘The policy of Creativity Research Journal is to consider only original material.’ Prominent Cornell professor has another paper retracted for duplication.

Robert Sternberg, a Cornell psychology professor whose work has earned three retractions for duplication, has had another paper retracted for the same reason.

Here’s the notice:

We, the Publisher of Creativity Research Journal, have retracted the following article:

— Robert J. Sternberg, The Nature of Creativity, Creativity Research Journal, Volume 18 (1), 2006. DOI https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1801_10

The policy of Creativity Research Journal is to consider only original material. It has become known that this article contains a substantial amount of content previously published by the same author in Creativity and Development (Sternberg, R. J. (2003). The development of creativity as a decision-making process. Creativity and Development, 91–138); The General Factor of Intelligence: How General Is It? (Sternberg, R. J. (2002). Beyond g: The theory of successful intelligence. The general factor of intelligence: How general is it, 447–479); Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized (Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Theory of Successful Intelligence. In Wisdom, intelligence, and creativity synthesized. Cambridge University Press); Choosing Students: Higher Education Admissions Tools for the 21^st Century (Sternberg, R. J., & Rainbow Project Collaborators. (2005). Augmenting the SAT through assessments of analytical, practical, and creative skills. Choosing students: Higher education admissions tools for the 21st century, 159–176); and Theory Into Practice (Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2004). Successful intelligence in the classroom. Theory into practice, 43(4), 274–280, DOI https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4304_5).

The scientific content of the article was found to be valid by the editor and reviewers and is not in question. As the significant overlap with previously published material conflicts with our stated policy on originality, the article is hereby retracted and should not be cited.

We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions.

The paper has been cited more than 300 times, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science, including more than 30 times in 2019.

As we noted last year,

Sternberg’s work came under scrutiny earlier this year when colleagues said he was citing himself at a high rate, and not doing enough to encourage diversity in psychology research. He resigned as editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science, and around the same time, Brendan O’Connor, at the University of Leicester in the UK posted allegations on Twitter that Sternberg had been recycling his work, after O’Connor analyzed the material with Nick Brown.

In addition to the four retractions, journals have corrected five of his papers, one of them twice.

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