Search Results for: coding error

Doing the right thing: Psychology researchers retract paper three days after learning of coding error

We always hesitate to call retraction statements “models” of anything, but this one comes pretty close to being a paragon.  Psychology researchers in Germany and Scotland have retracted their 2018 paper in Acta Psychologica after learning of a coding error in their work that proved fatal to the results. That much is routine. Remarkable in … Continue reading Doing the right thing: Psychology researchers retract paper three days after learning of coding error

Divorce study felled by a coding error gets a second chance

A journal has published a corrected version of a widely reported study linking severe illness and divorce rates after it was retracted in July due to a small coding error. The original, headline-spawning conclusion was that the risk of divorce in a heterosexual marriage increases when the wife falls ill, but not the husband. The revised results — published … Continue reading Divorce study felled by a coding error gets a second chance

Paper on “evidence for environmental racism” in EPA polluter fines retracted for coding error

A coding switcharoo caused a paper Society & Natural Resources to be retracted. But the authors say that not all is lost, since correcting the data gave them a better understanding of how the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fines companies that pollute in poor and minority neighborhoods. The retraction notice reads:

Doing the right thing: Authors retract brain paper with “systematic human error in coding”

A group of Swiss neurologists have lost their 2013 article in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience after reporting that their data were rendered null by coding errors. The article, “Spontaneous pre-stimulus fluctuations in the activity of right fronto-parietal areas influence inhibitory control performance,” purported to find that:

‘A terrifying experience’: A team of researchers does the right thing when they find an error

Mitch Brown was preparing last August to launch a follow-up study to a 2021 paper on coalitions when he found something in his computer coding that sent his stomach to his shoes.  As Brown, an experimental psychologist at the University of Arkansas, recalled for us: 

‘Please don’t be afraid to talk about your errors and to correct them.’

A “systematic error” in a mental health database has led to the retraction of a 2017 paper on how people with psychosis process facial expressions. Joana Grave, a PhD student at the University of Aveiro, in Portugal, and her colleagues published their article, “The effects of perceptual load in processing emotional facial expression in psychotic … Continue reading ‘Please don’t be afraid to talk about your errors and to correct them.’

Why “good PhD students are worth gold!” A grad student finds an error

Researchers in the Netherlands have retracted and replaced a 2015 paper on attention after discovering a coding error that reversed their finding.  Initially titled “Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over Left Dorsolateral pFC on the Attentional Blink Depend on Individual Baseline Performance,” the paper appeared in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience and was written … Continue reading Why “good PhD students are worth gold!” A grad student finds an error

Doing the right thing: Researchers retract clinician burnout study after realizing their error

A journal is retracting and replacing a 2016 study which found that nearly two-thirds of clinicians who focus on end-of-life care experienced burnout, after the authors found an error that had dramatically inflated the findings.  The article, “Prevalence and predictors of burnout among hospice and palliative care clinicians in the U.S.,” appeared in the Journal … Continue reading Doing the right thing: Researchers retract clinician burnout study after realizing their error

Distraction paper pulled for clerical error

The authors of a 2018 paper on how noisy distractions disrupt memory are retracting the article after finding a flaw in their study. The paper, “Unexpected events disrupt visuomotor working memory and increase guessing,” appeared in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, a publication of the Psychonomic Society. (For those keeping score at home, psychonomics is the … Continue reading Distraction paper pulled for clerical error