Weekend reads: Major Alzheimer’s paper slated for retraction; research dog breeder pleads guilty; biomedical retractions quadruple

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 400. There are more than 49,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 250 titles. And have … Continue reading Weekend reads: Major Alzheimer’s paper slated for retraction; research dog breeder pleads guilty; biomedical retractions quadruple

Weekend reads: Medical residents’ publish or perish problem; Alzheimer’s and predatory journals; brain biopsies set off alarm bells

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 400. There are more than 48,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 250 titles. And have … Continue reading Weekend reads: Medical residents’ publish or perish problem; Alzheimer’s and predatory journals; brain biopsies set off alarm bells

Medical society takes millions from company that sued it for defamation – and lost

When the American Society of Anesthesiologists last October announced the receipt of a $2.5 million donation from a drug company – “to advance education and innovation for our members”  – the news could have been dismissed with a shrug. After all, such gifts from industry to medical societies are commonplace.  What makes this case noteworthy … Continue reading Medical society takes millions from company that sued it for defamation – and lost

To guard against fraud, medical research should be a profession:  A book excerpt

We are pleased to present an excerpt from Trust in Medical Research, a freely available new book by Warwick P. Anderson, emeritus professor of physiology and biomedical sciences at Monash University in Victoria, Australia.  It has always been difficult for me to admit that we have a genuine and substantial problem of fraud and rubbish … Continue reading To guard against fraud, medical research should be a profession:  A book excerpt

Weekend reads: ‘A worrying amount of fraud in medical research;’ a society backpedals on sanctions; a plagiarism case becomes even more bizarre

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are nearly 39,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘A worrying amount of fraud in medical research;’ a society backpedals on sanctions; a plagiarism case becomes even more bizarre

Former medical school dean earns sixth retraction

A kidney researcher and former dean of a medical school has now had six papers retracted and one marked with an expression of concern in a little more than a year.  The latest retraction for Joseph I. Shapiro, of a 2015 paper in Science Advances, comes two years after PubPeer commenters began posting about potentially … Continue reading Former medical school dean earns sixth retraction

In four years, a psychosocial counselor co-authored seven papers on disparate medical topics. How? 

At the end of July, Muttukrishna Sarvananthan noticed something curious in the publications of Chulani Herath, a senior lecturer at the Open University of Sri Lanka in Nawala. Herath is listed as a middle author on seven papers about various topics in medicine, including heart disease, stroke, and burnout among general practitioners in China.  That … Continue reading In four years, a psychosocial counselor co-authored seven papers on disparate medical topics. How? 

Medical school dean up to five retractions

A kidney research group led by a medical school dean has accumulated five retractions.  All five came within the last year, after commenters on PubPeer pointed out image similarities.  Joseph I. Shapiro, vice president and dean of the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, is an author on … Continue reading Medical school dean up to five retractions

The “internet may be a challenging venue”: Biomedical engineering group up to four retractions

A group of biomedical engineering researchers has lost four papers because they appear to be recycling their images from other papers.  The retractions for the group, from Banaras Hindu University in India, span papers published between 2011 and 2014. The retractions began in 2020, after anonymous PubPeer commenters pointed out the similarities between images. The … Continue reading The “internet may be a challenging venue”: Biomedical engineering group up to four retractions

Medical journal retracts letter calling hijab ‘an instrument of oppression’

A major Canadian medical journal has retracted a letter to the editor by a prominent surgeon in Quebec who expressed reservations about a photo the journal had published of two young girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab. The photo in question (above) ran on the cover of the November 8, 2021 issue of … Continue reading Medical journal retracts letter calling hijab ‘an instrument of oppression’