Another busy week at Retraction Watch. Here’s what was happening elsewhere: Continue reading Weekend reads: Science News cites The Onion, bitterness over lack of credit in sixth grader’s project
Author: Ivan Oransky
Paper about widely touted but unapproved “cure” for cancer, autism retracted
A paper about a protein being used — unapproved by health agencies — to treat diseases including cancer and autism has been retracted.
Here’s the notice from the International Journal of Cancer about a 2007 paper purporting to show that the substance, GcMAF, is useful against breast cancer: Continue reading Paper about widely touted but unapproved “cure” for cancer, autism retracted
Incorrect analysis leads to Nature’s sixth retraction in 2014
In what seems to be an example of researchers swiftly and transparently correcting the literature, and acknowledging errors, a pair of scientists have retracted a 2013 paper from Nature.
Here’s the retraction notice for “Genomic organization of human transcription initiation complexes,” by Bryan Venters and Frank Pugh: Continue reading Incorrect analysis leads to Nature’s sixth retraction in 2014
U.S. senator appears to have plagiarized his master’s thesis
A Democratic senator from Montana, John Walsh, is the latest high-profile politician to face plagiarism charges.
The New York Times reports:
…one of the highest-profile credentials of Mr. Walsh’s 33-year military career appears to have been improperly attained. An examination of the final paper required for Mr. Walsh’s master’s degree from the United States Army War College indicates the senator appropriated at least a quarter of his thesis on American Middle East policy from other authors’ works, with no attribution.
In an infographic, the Times lays out the overlapping passages: Continue reading U.S. senator appears to have plagiarized his master’s thesis
Cardiology researcher who admitted to fraud earns four-year funding ban
A researcher who admitted in 2012 to “intentional and systematic manipulation” of data and had two papers retracted has been banned from funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Dennis Rottländer, who will also be returning prize money he was awarded for the research, worked in Uta C. Hoppe’s lab at the University of Cologne. Hoppe, now at University Hospital Salzburg, remains under investigation, according to a statement from the DFG.
Excerpt: Continue reading Cardiology researcher who admitted to fraud earns four-year funding ban
Accounting professor faked data for two studies, destroyed evidence: University report
The Bentley University accounting professor whose retraction we first reported on in November 2012 fabricated the data behind two papers, a university investigation has concluded.
James E. Hunton, who resigned in December 2012: Continue reading Accounting professor faked data for two studies, destroyed evidence: University report
Publishing gadfly demands journal editor’s resignation, then has “fairly incomprehensible” paper rejected
A scientific publishing gadfly who was banned earlier this year from an Elsevier journal for “personal attacks and threats” has had a paper rejected by a Springer journal after he called for the editor’s resignation because of alleged incompetence.
As detailed in a comment left at Retraction Watch, Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva submitted a manuscript titled “One Conjunction, a World of Ethical Difference: How Elsevier, the ICMJE and Neurology Define Authorship” to Science and Engineering Ethics on November 11, 2012. As of last week, despite a number of messages sent to editors of the journal, he had not had a decision on the manuscript.
As a result, on July 14 of this year, Teixeira da Silva sent this letter to journal editor Raymond Spier and to Stephanie Bird, an editorial board member assigned to the manuscript: Continue reading Publishing gadfly demands journal editor’s resignation, then has “fairly incomprehensible” paper rejected
Boeing engineer has two papers retracted for duplication
The editor of the Journal of Sound and Vibration has retracted two papers by a Boeing engineer because the author reused his previous work.
Here’s the notice for “A component-based model for aircraft landing gear noise prediction,” by Yueping Guo: Continue reading Boeing engineer has two papers retracted for duplication
Weekend reads: How to fix “slow,” “unhelpful,” and “generally awful” peer review, where all the PhDs go
Another busy week at Retraction Watch, but there was lots happening elsewhere, too: Continue reading Weekend reads: How to fix “slow,” “unhelpful,” and “generally awful” peer review, where all the PhDs go
Authors issue their own expression of concern about elephant femur paper
The authors of a 2012 paper in the journal Interface have had the journal issue an expression of concern about it after issues with “some of the data and methods” came to light.
Here’s the expression of concern for “What makes an accurate and reliable subject-specific finite element model? A case study of an elephant femur:” Continue reading Authors issue their own expression of concern about elephant femur paper