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The week at Retraction Watch featured:
- Kentucky professor resigns ahead of vote that could have stripped him of tenure
- Abstracts flagged because conferences — including one in Wuhan in late 2019 — may not have happened
- Meet a sleuth whose work has led to the identification of hundreds of fraudulent papers
- Social psychology in the age of retraction
- Publisher retracts 20 of a researcher’s papers — then asks him to peer review
- PNAS bans author for refusing to share algae strain
- US federal watchdog loses director to another government role
Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 128.
Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):
- “The media called the ‘lab leak’ story a ‘conspiracy theory.’ Now it’s prompted corrections — and serious new reporting.”
- “Elite journals under scrutiny over role in Wuhan lab leak debate.”
- “Fauci described Indian research on ‘man-made Covid’ as outlandish.” Earlier, our take on the same study.
- “Fudan University Party Secretary’s Murder Rocks Chinese Academia.”
- “In a rare move, lawmakers have voted to eliminate the job of a well-paid university professor.”
- “NIH removed more than 70 lab heads from grants after harassment complaints.”
- “Harvard bans former anthropology chair after finding persistent sexual harassment.”
- German politician Franziska Giffey has lost her doctorate from Berlin’s Free University after plagiarism charges.
- “Can research integrity prevail in the market?”
- “Senior researchers bristled at the idea that their fields were in ‘crisis’, and suspected that activists were seeking recognition for themselves.”
- “The fundamental problem is that the same term, retraction, is used in two wildly different contexts: honest error and outright fraud.”
- “Finding a Paper on PubMed Does Not Mean the Paper Is Any Good.”
- “A statistical analysis of Physical Review Letters papers shows correlations between number of citations and press coverage.”
- “A year after lockdowns began, has research got any kinder?”
- “Federal Agencies Must Investigate Serious Regulatory, Ethical Lapses in Reckless Epilepsy Clinical Trial Funded by NIH,” says Public Citizen.
- “Can standardised courses in research ethics prevent publication misconduct?”
- A researcher urges the retraction of a decades-old paper on “correcting” sex-role behaviors in children. Background here.
- “A courtroom is not a laboratory.” CNRS weighs in on legal claims made against Elisabeth Bik and PubPeer’s Boris Barbour.
- Scientists object to the appointment of Colombia’s science minister, whose co-author plagiarized.
- A “copyright claim prompts retraction of study on alexithymia in autism.”
- “If evidence of errors does emerge, the process for correcting or withdrawing a paper tends to be alarmingly long.”
- “Reporting on scientific failures and holding the science community accountable: 5 tips for journalists.”
- “A Florida nurse practitioner and a Florida woman pleaded guilty today to their participation in a conspiracy to falsify clinical trial data.”
- “An apology for plagiarism.”
- “New York Times Publishes Then Deletes Article Claiming Watermelons Were Found on Mars.”
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