Author: Ivan Oransky

Diederik Stapel loses teaching post, admits he was sockpuppeting on Retraction Watch

stapel_npcDiederik Stapel’s reinvention as a teacher at a college in the Netherlands has proven to be short-lived.

According to the NRC Handelsblad, Stapel resigned from the job at Fontys in solidarity with Anton Dautzenberg, whose contract at Fontys was terminated and with whom Stapel had co-authored a play. A performance of that play was cancelled last month.

Stapel, who has 54 retractions, tells Retraction Watch that he “had to resign:” Continue reading Diederik Stapel loses teaching post, admits he was sockpuppeting on Retraction Watch

PubPeer Selections: PubPeer comments prompt investigation; Memory of water returns?

pubpeerHere’s another installment of PubPeer Selections: Continue reading PubPeer Selections: PubPeer comments prompt investigation; Memory of water returns?

Oxford group reverses authorship requirements for sharing data after questions from Retraction Watch

oxfordIt seemed like an egregious violation of academic standards.

A researcher forwarded us a data access agreement from the University of Oxford, in which Schedule 4 read as follows:
Continue reading Oxford group reverses authorship requirements for sharing data after questions from Retraction Watch

Journal makes it official, retracting controversial autism-vaccine paper

translational neurodegenerationA little more than a month after removing a highly criticized article that claimed the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine increased the risk of autism in African American boys, Translational Neurodegeneration has officially retracted the paper.

Here’s the notice, dated yesterday: Continue reading Journal makes it official, retracting controversial autism-vaccine paper

Weekend reads: How’d my name end up on that paper?; Bob Dylan in the scientific literature

booksThe week at Retraction Watch featured yet another case of a researcher peer reviewing his own paper, and an odd defense of plagiarism. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
Continue reading Weekend reads: How’d my name end up on that paper?; Bob Dylan in the scientific literature

Contrary to reports, Lancet not retracting controversial letter to people of Gaza

logo_lancetDespite the claims of a widely circulated news report today, The Lancet has no plans to retract a controversial open letter to the people of Gaza that has drawn criticism since being published in August.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported this morning: Continue reading Contrary to reports, Lancet not retracting controversial letter to people of Gaza

Nature, facing “considerable rise” in retractions, blames lawyers for opaque and delayed notices

nature oct coverNature, as we and others have noticed, has had what Paul Knoepfler referred to as a “torrent” of retractions in the past two years. That torrent — 13 research papers — has prompted a welcome and soul-searching editorial, as it did in 2010 when the journal had what it called an “unusually large number” of 4.

As the editors write this week in “Retraction challenges:” Continue reading Nature, facing “considerable rise” in retractions, blames lawyers for opaque and delayed notices

PubPeer Selections: Sniffing at a dog poop paper; how grants should be distributed

Here’s another installment of PubPeer Selections:pubpeer Continue reading PubPeer Selections: Sniffing at a dog poop paper; how grants should be distributed

Author of alcohol paper retracted for plagiarism defends copy-and-paste strategy

nmlogoThe authors of a paper retracted for plagiarism of a popular website have decided not to take the charges — which they don’t contest — lying down.

Here’s the notice for “Alcohol consumption and hormonal alterations related to muscle hypertrophy: a review,” which appeared in Nutrition & Metabolism, a BioMed Central title: Continue reading Author of alcohol paper retracted for plagiarism defends copy-and-paste strategy

It’s happened again: Researcher appears to have peer reviewed his own paper

bmc sys bioAlthough it shocks some observers every time, we’ve reported on the retractions of more than 100 papers pulled because authors managed to do their own peer review.

Apparently, it’s happened again.

Here’s a retraction notice in BMC Systems Biology for “Predicting new molecular targets for rhein using network pharmacology,” by  Aihua Zhang, Hui Sun, Bo Yang and Xijun Wang:

Continue reading It’s happened again: Researcher appears to have peer reviewed his own paper