The authors of a 2005 article on E. coli in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology have lost the paper because they recombined it from previous work.
The article, titled “Strategies for efficient production of heterologous proteins in Escherichia coli,” came from a pair of biochemical engineers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, in New Delhi, India.
According to the abstract: Continue reading De-coli: Plagiarism leads to retraction of highly cited recombinant protein paper
The following post was written by a former research fellow in the lab of Piero Anversa to whom we’ve promised confidentiality. Anversa has previously told us that he cannot comment because of an ongoing investigation.
Regular readers of Retraction Watch will note the recent news regarding the work conducted in the laboratory of Piero Anversa at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. In the early 2000s, his laboratory published a series of papers regarding the regenerative qualities of bone marrow-derived and cardiac-resident “stem cells.”
Those initial findings, as well as the research conducted since those early studies, have always been surrounded by controversy, as many have been unsuccessful in efforts to replicate their results. Controversy among competitors is not uncommon in our profession, but this particular one has blossomed into a formal investigation of their findings, and has, to date, led to the retraction of one paper and an expression of concern about another. Continue reading Braggadacio, information control, and fear: Life inside a Brigham stem cell lab under investigation
The Kyodo News service has reported that Haruko Obokata has agreed to retract one of the two Nature papers on an easy method of making stem cells.
According to the report: Continue reading Obokata agrees to retract one of two STAP stem cell papers in Nature: Reports
Xenon may be an inert gas, but that doesn’t mean papers about the molecule aren’t subject to change.
Indeed, the journal Anaesthesia has retracted a 2010 article about xenon-based anesthesia, and corrected a 2005 article by some of the same researchers, for what appears to be a case of wurst slicing.
The 2005 paper, “Comparison of xenon-based anaesthesia compared with total intravenous anaesthesia in high risk surgical patients,” came from a group at the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, in Kiel, Germany. It has been cited 10 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.
According to the abstract: Continue reading Failure to cite leads to ignoble end for xenon paper, and a correction
The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology has retracted a 2013 paper by a group from China after learning that only the first author knew about the article.
The paper was titled “Construction of circular miRNA sponges targeting miR-21 or miR-221 and demonstration of their excellent anticancer effects on malignant melanoma cells,” and it was led by Yuchen Liu. Liu’s affiliations include the Institute of Dermatology and Department of Dermatology at No. 1 Hospital, part of Anhui Medical University, and the State Key Laboratory Incubation Base of Dermatology for the Ministry of National Science and Technology.
Here’s the retraction notice:
Continue reading Forged authorship sinks melanoma paper
Last November we wrote about the retraction of a 2010 paper in PNAS by Annemie Schuerwegh and colleagues. Schuerwegh had been fired from Leiden University in The Netherlands for fraud, which said there would be a second retraction coming.
It has.
The article, “Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis: a functional role for mast cells and basophils?” had appeared in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. According to the retraction notice: Continue reading Second paper falls for ex-Leiden researcher accused of fraud
The author of a controversial 2009 paper arguing that at least some amount of global warming could lead to economic gains has corrected the paper, along with a later article in a different journal. We confess to be baffled by the implications of the mix-up, although others appear to be less confused.
The 2009 article, “The Economic Effects of Climate Change,” was written by Richard Tol, of the University of Sussex, and appeared in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. It has been cited 91 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Science.
Here’s the abstract:
Continue reading “Gremlins” caused errors in climate change paper showing gains from global warming
The authors of a 2012 paper in the Journal of Neuroimmunology have retracted the paper after some of the researchers were unable to verify the findings in follow-up work.
The article, “Association of transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFB1) regulatory region polymorphisms with myasthenia gravis-related ophthalmoparesis,” came from a lab at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, in South Africa.
According to the abstract: Continue reading Nothing to see here: Unreplicable eye paper ends in retraction
The British Journal of Nutrition has retracted a 2013 paper by a group of researchers from Taiwan after learning that the authors had studied the wrong strain of microbe.
The article was titled “Oral Lactobacillus reuteri GMN-32 treatment reduces blood glucose concentrations and promotes cardiac function in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus.”
According to the abstract: Continue reading Lactobacillus intolerance: Bacterium mixup forces retraction
A group of bird researchers in China has lost their article in Wetlands Ecology and Management on the migratory habits of shorebirds after the editors of the journal learned that they’d cobbled the paper together from their own previously published work.
The article by Song et. al., “Ecological stability of the shorebird stopover site in the Yalu River Estuary Wetlands, China,” had appeared online in February.
Here’s the abstract: Continue reading Birds of a feather: Duplication grounds migration paper