Weekend reads: An error in a PLOS journal leads to angry calls to Fauci; Jonathan Pruitt placed on leave; Cassava Sciences under SEC investigation

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The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Publisher retracts nearly 80 articles over three days
• PNAS retracts paper that contributed to lung cancer trial
• ‘I have zero complaints about the process’: Post-publication analysis earns perception paper a flag
• Co-author of paper claiming COVID-19 vaccines linked to miscarriage says he’s retracting it
• Elsevier makes “sand, sun, sea and sex with strangers” paper disappear following criticism. And “Sand, sun, sea and sex with strangers” paper did not need human subjects research protection approval, says author
• Stanford prof fights efforts to make him pay at least $75,000 in legal fees after dropping defamation suit

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 190. There are now more than 31,000 retractions in our database — which now powers retraction alerts in EndNote, Papers, and Zotero. 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):

• “The false claim about the funding for the beagle study, research that was conducted in Tunisia, originated with an error by scientists.” The downstream effects for Anthony Fauci of of an error in a PLOS journal.
• Spider biologist Jonathan Pruitt placed on paid leave from McMaster.
• “SEC Investigating Cassava Sciences, Developer of Experimental Alzheimer’s Drug.”
• “A billion-dollar donation: estimating the cost of researchers’ time spent on peer review.”
• In China, a “Major science organisation targets periodicals publishing too many papers or high proportion of brief articles.”
• “Keeping science reproducible in a world of custom code and data.”
• “Publishers need to help speed research up, not slow it down.”
• “EcoHealth Alliance’s Peter Daszak is fighting accusations that his pandemic prevention work helped spark COVID-19.”
• “We conclude that Registered Reports are promoting reproducibility, transparency and self-correction across disciplines and may help reshape how society evaluates research and researchers.”
• “Concerns About Images Arise Over Multiple Papers From DRDO, CSIR Labs.”
• “Before there was arXiv, there was Joanne Cohn.” How a string theorist created an email list that led to the preprint server.
• “Jury Awards Ex-University of Utah Autism Researcher $760K Over Retaliatory Firing.”
• “Female researchers are more read and less cited because they more often engage in research for societal progress.”
• “Peer reviewer data revealed.” An astronomy journal looks as how “the personalities and life experiences of our referees affect their reviewing practices.”
• “Criticism of room temperature superconductor ‘temporarily removed’ from journal.” Elsevier has made that move more than 100 times since 2005.
• “Peer review has many aspects where bias is inevitable. Acknowledging this is the first step to managing it.”
• “Four Pakistani research papers on Covid-19 retracted.”
• “Procedures and Principles of Disposal of Research Misconduct in Japan…”
• The University of New Mexico’s “Office of Research and Compliance changes name to Office of Research Integrity and Compliance.
• “Is this “‘the most straightforward and honest PubPeer Author Response‘ of the year?”
• “REWIRED is the story of a Navy SEAL’s desperate journey to reclaim his sanity, his family and his life after undergoing an experimental brain treatment and enduring a psychotic break.”
• “Universities would be better taking their league tables budget and spending it on some actual tables where actual students could sit.”

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