Weekend reads: Peer review during the pandemic; CEO out after doctored research; more on COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis

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The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Company fires employee, ends cash for citation scheme following Retraction Watch post
• Another journal distances itself from cash for citations after Retraction Watch report
• Paper linking COVID-19 vaccines to myocarditis is temporarily removed without explanation
• Lancet retracts 10-year-old case report
• Publisher investigating paper a lucrative scale is based on following Retraction Watch reporting
• When ‘out of print’ really means ‘retracted’
• Scientist blames grad student for gibberish book chapter — a charge she calls ‘crazy’
• Publisher does a “thorough sweep” of alternative medicine journal after a paper is published in error

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 183. There are now more than 30,000 retractions in our database. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately?

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

• “Whether it is peer-reviewed research or a preprint: we have to say honestly that it is not the last word, but what we know so far. Peer review is also not a stamp of approval. It’s not black and white, it’s a continuum.”
• “Our findings suggest that the first wave of the pandemic has created potentially cumulative advantages for men.”
• CEO “Leen Kawas officially out at Athira after investigation finds doctored research.” Four of her papers have earned expressions of concern.
• “Now, anyone can make an error but there are several simple ways to minimize your chances of making one.” Lessons from the withdrawal of a paper on COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis.
• “A Data Sleuth Challenged A Powerful COVID Scientist. Then He Came After Her.”
• “LGBT+: Indian medical institutions are asked to amend textbooks with unscientific content.”
• “Can researchers navigate the ethical minefield of protest trials?”
• “How to make your research reproducible.”
• “MIT professor sues after he was forced to resign from institute following sexual harassment allegations.”
• “The board of a small college in West Virginia decided Wednesday to take unspecified discipline against its president on allegations that he plagiarized some speeches.”
• “Research integrity — it’s about more than misconduct.”
• Denon Start, an ecology researcher who earlier lost a thesis award has now lost a PNAS paper.
• “Doctor who advocated Covid-19 therapy including ivermectin applied for patent on same unproven treatment.”
• “University offers to rehire professor acquitted of hiding China ties.”
• “Researchers urge funders and institutions to crack down on false investigators.”
• “The Troubling Allure of Predatory Publishing.”
• “Courtroom testimony about dogs detecting dead bodies keeps sending people to prison,” but “Critics say the science is lacking.”
• “Actions on Retractions.”

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