Author: Adam Marcus

Protein journal retracts mystery paper that plagiarized phantom article

Protein & Peptide Letters, a Bentham title, has retracted a paper for plagiarism, but it’s the unhelpful — bordering on insulting — notice that caught our eye.

The abstract for the notice, the rest of which  sits behind a $63.10 (plus tax) pay wall on Ingenta Connect, reads:

As per Bentham Science’s policy, the following article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief and its Authors published in `Protein & Peptide Letters“ due to their use of text obtained from another paper published in the Biochemical Journal.

Oh, my. Where to begin…

Continue reading Protein journal retracts mystery paper that plagiarized phantom article

Flawed disclosure leads dental journal to retract disinfection paper

The Journal of the American Dental Association has retracted a paper it published earlier this year after learning that the author took liberties with certain “critical information” about the trial.

The article, “The Effect of Long-Term Disinfection on Clinical Contact Surfaces,” was written by Charles John Palenik, who retired as director of infection control research and services at Indiana University in 2011, according to Medscape Medical News, which first reported the story and whose earlier story had originally flagged issues in the paper to the journal.

The editor of the journal, Michael Glick, initially intended to issue an erratum and explain what went wrong with the article, but not retract the piece, Medscape reported in June.  At the time, Glick told the news service that Continue reading Flawed disclosure leads dental journal to retract disinfection paper

Authors retract Digestion paper for “unacceptably high number of errors”

A group of South Korean researchers has decided to withdraw a paper they recently published in the journal Digestion because it was filled with mistakes.

The paper, “Endoscopy-Based Decision Is Sufficient for Predicting Completeness in Lateral Resection Margin in Colon Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection,” was published earlier this year (and online in late 2011) by a group in Seoul. But according to the retraction notice:

Continue reading Authors retract Digestion paper for “unacceptably high number of errors”

ORI finds Harvard stem cell lab post-doc Mayack manipulated images

courtesy Nature

Shane Mayack, a former post-doc in Harvard lab of Amy Wagers, a rising star in the stem cell field, has been sanctioned by the Office of Research Integrity for misconduct.

Mayack, who has defended her actions on this blog as honest error — albeit sloppiness — and has not admitted to wrongdoing, must undergo supervision if she receives any federal grant funding over the next three years, under the voluntary agreement.

Here’s the notice, which appeared in the Federal Register this week (and which the Boston Globe was first to report): Continue reading ORI finds Harvard stem cell lab post-doc Mayack manipulated images

Authors, including highly cited cancer researcher, blame “clerical error” for image mixup in paper

The Journal of Experimental Medicine has issued a correction for a 2011 paper by Michael Karin, a prominent cancer researcher at the University of California, San Diego, after learning about a “clerical error” in one of the figures.

According to the notice for the article, “Constitutive intestinal NF-κB does not trigger destructive inflammation unless accompanied by MAPK activation,” Continue reading Authors, including highly cited cancer researcher, blame “clerical error” for image mixup in paper

A Wnt-er’s tale: Blood pulls second signaling paper from Spanish scientists over image fakery

Blood has pulled a paper 2007 paper from a group of Spanish researchers, one of whom appears to have been manipulating images.

The group’s work became the focus of expressions of concern from the Journal of Clinical Oncology this spring and in 2010.

The article, “Epigenetic regulation of Wnt-signaling pathway in acute lymphoblastic leukemia,” purported to show “a role of abnormal Wnt signaling in ALL and establish a group of patients with a significantly worse prognosis (methylated group)” and earned a commentary on the significance of the findings.

But as the notice explains, the first author lifted and manipulated a figure from a previously published article: Continue reading A Wnt-er’s tale: Blood pulls second signaling paper from Spanish scientists over image fakery

Hypertension retracts paper over data glitch

The anticipation of having one’s blood pressure measured can cause it to spike.

So, evidently, can errors in data processing — on a national scale.

Hypertension, a journal published by the American Heart Association, has retracted a 2011 paper looking at the implications of blood pressure management guidelines after the authors discovered they had bungled the merging of their data files.

As the notice explains: Continue reading Hypertension retracts paper over data glitch

Anesthesia journal retracts paper from Estonian researchers in wake of legal inquiry

Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica has retracted a 2008 paper by a group of Estonian researchers who appear to have wound up in legal jeopardy for misrepresenting their work.

Here’s the notice: Continue reading Anesthesia journal retracts paper from Estonian researchers in wake of legal inquiry

Boldt inquiry concludes: False findings in at least 10 studies, but no harm to patients

Ludwigshafen Hospital, via Wikimedia http://bit.ly/Qnt9wS

It has been a while since we heard about Joachim Boldt, the German anesthesiologist whose 90-odd retractions briefly put him at the top of the heap until Yoshitaka Fujii kicked him off earlier this year.

Now, Boldt’s former institution, the Klinikum Ludwigshafen, has released a report on its investigation into the disgraced critical care expert, and the results aren’t pretty. Here’s a press release about the report, in its entirety: Continue reading Boldt inquiry concludes: False findings in at least 10 studies, but no harm to patients

Mizzou investigating faculty as one heart beats as two in plagiarized — and now retracted — cardiac paper

The American Journal of the Medical Sciences has retracted a 2012 article on premature heartbeats by a group of authors in Missouri who took “significant” liberties with an earlier paper in Heart.

The offending paper, “Ventricular ectopic beats: an overview of management considerations, “was written by Amar Jadhav and colleagues at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, in Columbia, and published in the February issue of the AJMS.

According to the retraction notice: Continue reading Mizzou investigating faculty as one heart beats as two in plagiarized — and now retracted — cardiac paper