Author: Adam Marcus

Irony alert: Authors lose paper in loss prevention journal for plagiarism

losspreventionIf it seems that we write “irony alert” often, well, can you blame us? The Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries (we’ll call it JLPPI for short) has retracted a paper it published earlier this year for plagiarism from multiple sources.

The article, “FTA vs. Tripod-Beta, which seems better for the analysis of major accidents in process industries?” was written by two occupational health researchers at Hamadan University of Medical Sciences in Iran. According to the abstract:

Continue reading Irony alert: Authors lose paper in loss prevention journal for plagiarism

E pluribus unum (oops!) forces retraction of social justice article

thirdworldIrony alert: If you’re going to publish a paper on the importance of hearing from many voice in a debate, better make sure every voice is heard.

Here’s a case where some got muted.

Third World Quarterly, a Taylor & Francis title, has retracted a paper it published recently because only one of the authors — a co-editor of the special issue in which the paper appeared — was listed on the final article. Here’s the retraction notice, which explains the publisher’s mishap: Continue reading E pluribus unum (oops!) forces retraction of social justice article

Paper retracted because images “were, in fact, electron microscopy results of totally different catalysts”

catcommA group of chemical engineers in China has retracted their article on photocatalysts after alerting the journal that images in the paper did not show what they’d reported.

The article, which appeared in Catalysis Communications earlier this year, was titled “Synthesis and characterization of novel Cu2O/PANI composite photocatalysts with enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability,” and was written by Xiufang Wang, Guangmei Chen and Jun Zhang of the School of Materials and Chemical Engineering at Anhui University of Architecture, in Hefei.

Here’s the retraction notice: Continue reading Paper retracted because images “were, in fact, electron microscopy results of totally different catalysts”

The brains in Spain fall mainly on…Iran?

braininjWe’ve come across some odd examples of plagiarism in this job, from the fellow who tried to build a CV on the back of another researcher’s work, to the education researcher who, from what we can tell, preferred lifting the work of others to writing her own papers. Here’s another odd one for the pile.

A group of Iranian scholars has lost a paper in Brain Injury because they lifted it wholesale from a previously published article. What’s harder to get one’s mind around, however, is that the two papers were looking at culturally-specific aspects of brain injury. Except that one wasn’t.

The retracted paper, “Frontal acquired brain injury, substance abuse and their common psychological symptoms in the Iranian population,” appeared in 2011. Here’s the abstract, which is still available on the journal’s website (we’ll note that although the abstract is free for all, the retraction notice was behind a pay wall — an error, according to the publisher, which they remedied when we contacted them):  Continue reading The brains in Spain fall mainly on…Iran?

Thorax retracts cystic fibrosis paper with bogus data

thoraxA group of European researchers is retracting their 2012 paper in Thorax on the link between cystic fibrosis and the common cold after discovering that the first author, a promising young microbiologist in Switzerland, had made up her data.

The article, titled “Impaired type I and type III interferon induction and rhinovirus control in human cystic fibrosis airway epithelial cells,” purported to describe:

a novel mechanism to explain the increased susceptibility of patients with CF to rhinovirus infections. A profound impairment of the antiviral early innate response in CF airway epithelial cells was identified, suggesting a potential use of IFNs in the treatment of rhinovirus-induced CF exacerbations.

The lead author was Marjolaine Vareille, who at the time was at the University of Bern. Vareille won a L’Oréal France grant in 2007 from the Fondation L’Oréal – Unesco-French Academy of Sciences. The paper has been cited eight times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.

But according to the retraction notice: Continue reading Thorax retracts cystic fibrosis paper with bogus data

Aussie university halts trials of skin cancer drug whose developer has four retractions

khachigian
Khachigian

An Australian university has put a hold on trials of an experimental drug for skin cancer whose main developer has been dogged by charges of research misconduct for several years.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that the University of New South Wales has suspended trials of the drug, DZ13, while it investigates the work of Levon Khachigian, who is leading the studies.

According to the news organization, Khachigian and his group were cleared by the school in two prior inquiries. However, additional accusations of misconduct — specifically involving image manipulation and misuse — prompted a third investigation.

We’ve found four retractions of Khachigian’s studies, from the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, between 2009 and 2010 (before the launch of Retraction Watch).

They are: Continue reading Aussie university halts trials of skin cancer drug whose developer has four retractions

Journal retracts a 24-year-old sociology paper for plagiarism–of a 1975 article

soafrevsocThe South African Review of Sociology has retracted a 1989 paper by an author who must have figured the source — a 1975 article — was sufficiently well removed from institutional memory to catch anyone’s eye.

Evidently that was a safe bet for a generation. But we’re guessing the Internet permitted the detective work that eventually brought the theft to light.

The article was titled (oddly), “Doing the Knowledge in Literature and Sociology,” and its author was P.N.G. Beard, who since 2008 has been group chief education officer at Educor, “the largest provider of private education in Southern Africa.” Beard seems to have written an academic text or two, with titles including  “Problems of Pedagogics: Pedagogics and the Study of Education in South Africa,” and  “The Child Is Father of the Man: Inaugural Lecture.”

Here’s the retraction notice: Continue reading Journal retracts a 24-year-old sociology paper for plagiarism–of a 1975 article

Carbon copies? Authors retract paper from leading chemistry journal

jacsat_v135i031.inddThe authors of a 2008 Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) paper have retracted it after a structure was “mistakenly assigned.”

The article, “Highly Enantioselective Radical Addition to N-Benzoyl Hydrazones Using Chiral Ammonium Salts,” was written by Doo Ok Jang and Sang Yoon Kim, chemists at Yonsei University, in Wonju. According to the abstract (which includes this molecular schema):

Continue reading Carbon copies? Authors retract paper from leading chemistry journal

Insert data here … Did researcher instruct co-author to make up results for chemistry paper?

orgnd7_v032i014.inddThe chemistry blogs have been buzzing this week with the story of a paper in the journal Organometallics that may — or may not — contain fabricated data.

But what makes the story a bit juicier — and yes, it’s sad that fabricated data is a bit ho-hum for us — is that one of the authors of the article appears to have been caught in the act of instructing the first author to make up results.

The article, “Synthesis, Structure, and Catalytic Studies of Palladium and Platinum Bis-Sulfoxide Complexes,” appeared last month and came from a group at the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Zurich. The authors were Emma E. Drinkel, Linglin Wu, Anthony Linden and Reto Dorta.

As ChemBark reported earlier this week:

Continue reading Insert data here … Did researcher instruct co-author to make up results for chemistry paper?

Birds of a feather: Authors who play games with fowl data earn multiple retractions

jmicrobiotechA group of animal health researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have lost their 2009 paper in the Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology because they’d published the data in at least four other articles.

The paper, “Two Novel Duck Antibacterial Peptides, Avian β-Defensins 9 and 10, with Antimicrobial Activity,” reported that: Continue reading Birds of a feather: Authors who play games with fowl data earn multiple retractions