Weekend reads: 800 retractions from Russia; paying to publish in Vietnam; a retraction involving Facebook, political misinformation, and Teen Vogue

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The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Crossfit being awarded $4 million in sanctions in a case stemming from a now-retracted paper;
• the WHO formally retracting opioid guidelines tainted by conflict of interest;
• the retraction of 17 papers by one journal for citation manipulation.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

• “Academic journals in Russia are retracting more than 800 papers following a probe into unethical publication practices…”
• In Russia, retraction as a regular practice “has appeared recently and is still regarded by both scientists and editors as something extraordinary, as a method of punishment.”
• In Vietnam, a scheme to pay academics to publish in journals has boosted production — but is also being gamed in ways officials didn’t foresee.
• “The pressure on researchers to build large, interdisciplinary teams can lead to fake collaborations that undermine research integrity, according to two psychologists.”
• “We omitted the data. This was our mistake and We feel shamed for it.”
• Ohio State’s Carlo Croce is appealing a court decision denying his bid to be reinstated as department chair. He is representing himself. Background here.
• “Controversial study urging people to eat red meat followed by correction.”
• “In the ensuing hours, a befuddling back-and-forth followed, featuring a mysterious retraction, an apology and a pair of statements parceled out by company spokespeople.” A story involving Facebook, political misinformation, and Teen Vogue.
• “The magnitude of the problem can be judged by scanning the largest database of retracted papers maintained by the Retraction Watch blog. The blog reveals that of the 1,050 papers from India retracted since the 1970s, 330 have been for plagiarism and nearly 200 for image duplication and/or manipulation.”
• An investigation into more than 100 papers from the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research authors is complete, The Hindu reports.
• “Do male researchers disregard the work of female researchers?” A study aims to find out.
• “[T]he Physician Payment Sunshine Act was associated with an increase in the number, but a decline in the value, of general payments received by non-orthopedic surgeons, but not on research payments received.”
• “Taylor & Francis has acquired open research publisher F1000 Research from its founder Vitek Tracz.”
• “So when people say that research is self-correcting, I say ‘yeah, but there are many cases where it doesn’t happen‘.”
• “Academics are pushing journal publishers to take more drastic action in response to China’s crackdown on minority Muslims in the wake of increasing scrutiny over the global science community’s role in the continued persecution.”
• “One problem with a legalistic attitude toward science is that it can encourage the attitude that, if you just follow the protocols, you’ll do good science.”
• “Misrepresenting ‘Usual Care’ in Research: An Ethical and Scientific Error.”
• “Overall, the findings suggest that transparent and reproducibility-related research practices are far from routine in psychological science.”
• “Research scholar attacks PhD quality of Kanhaiya Kumar, accuses him of publishing paper in ‘predatory journal.’”
• Montenegro journalist Anđela Đikanović was jailed for incitement after the retraction of an article alleging the country’s consideration of a request for aid from Kosovo.
• A checklist to “assess whether a paper has flaws that call its integrity into question.”
• “More than a dozen [Los Angeles Police Department] officers are under investigation for allegedly falsifying some data collected during traffic stops in South LA, causing the names of some innocent citizens to be labeled as gang members in police databases, multiple law enforcement sources told NBC4.”
• “An Australian university has launched an investigation into the research record of a discredited scientist it educated.”
• “The analysis reveals remarkable differences between the instructions for reviewers of journals of different rank.”
• “Science is broken! Bring on the data thugs.” Mighty Casey talks reproducibility on “Healthcare is Hilarious.”

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