Weekend reads: Legal threats, lawsuits, a professor loses emeritus status, and ‘the 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill’

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The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Paper linking frequency of Google search terms to violence against women retracted
• Oh, the gall(stones): A journal should retract a paper on reiki and pain, says a critic
• ‘The notices are utterly unhelpful’: A look at how journals have handled allegations about hundreds of papers
• Paper likening human sperm to “playful otters” retracted
• Researcher loses medical degree for using paper mill to write his dissertation
• How can universities and journals work together better on misconduct allegations?
• ‘Preprints are works in progress’: The tale of a disappearing COVID-19 paper

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 126.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

• “The scientific debate over baby shaking prosecutions became so intense last year that a pathologist and a paediatrician threatened legal action over another scientist’s article, prompting the nation’s top forensic journal to pull down a scientific paper.”
• “Pharma lab seems to contradict itself, science in fight to bleed SC horseshoe crabs”: A court case, Charles River Labs, and an expression of concern.
• A researcher at The Ohio State University who has had ten papers retracted has been stripped of his emeritus status.
• “Australian and international scientists publish open letter defending Dr Elisabeth Bik and calling for science whistleblowers to be protected.”
• “The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill.”
• “Academic journals, journalists perpetuate misinformation in their handling of research retractions, a new study finds.”
• “More than 100 scientific studies related to Covid-19 have been disowned.”
• “In the last three decades, six researchers have authored 303 of the 375 papers retracted in perioperative medicine.”
• A “study demonstrates the detrimental consequences of media failure to accurately communicate the scientific process.”
• “Science Had a Misinformation Problem Before COVID. Scientists Want to Fix It.”
• “A mathematical model designed to forecast the success of biotechnology papers has drawn criticism from researchers.”
• “Prestigious European grants might be biased, study suggests.”
• “Scientific Integrity Matters.”
• “In the meantime, here is a fresh crop of published findings that have come up null or replicated earlier ones.”
• “Full report details investigation that cleared [Dartmouth] computer science professor of sexual misconduct, retaliation allegations.”
• “Activist Archivists Are Trying to Save the ‘Pirate Bay of Science.’”
• “Politicians’ affairs and plagiarism – doctoral theses under suspicion.”
• “Replicable studies, using rigorous methods and clearly defined outcomes are urgently needed if organizations want to achieve a real change in organizational climate or culture for responsible research.”
• “Plagiarism is absolutely avoidable. Just remember: Anything from a source other than your own brain needs attribution.”
• “Can AI be used ethically to assist peer review?”
• “How many others were harmed by research and ethical misconduct within Koren’s ‘vast body of work’?”
• “Low-quality reviews lead to a wide array of negative emotions, including anxiety, anger, and sadness.” How authors feel about peer review comments.
• A researcher is “Sentenced to Prison for Lying on Grant Applications to Develop Scientific Expertise for China.”
• “How to respond to difficult or negative peer-reviewer feedback.”
• The University of Toledo’s animal research program is under review.
• “Direct monetary incentives for articles may support productivity but they cannot guarantee impact.”
• “The American Association of University Professors is launching an investigation into Linfield’s dismissal of a tenured professor.”
• “You Say Plagiarism. I Say Provocation.”
• “Scientific-journal publishers announce trans-inclusive name-change policies.”
• “You can call it gaming the system, but universities have learned to optimise their performance according to the rules, and that’s perfectly legitimate.”
• “Replication: Do not trust your p-value, be it small or large.”
• “Things I’d Like To See Written In Scientific Papers.” A list from the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon.

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